And I disagree. We’re up to a pre-crisis GDP only if you don’t adjust for inflation. What we’ve had is INFLATION in other things, combined with low housing prices.
In other words, a lot of Americans lost their shirts due to housing crashing. Now to add insult to injury, they’re paying 25% more for food, about the same for gas, more for energy, than before the crash.
Keep them on the treadmill, make sure they can’t save anything but are pressured by society into owning the latest and greatest.