I usually agree with what you say, except this time. I believe the general public are quite well funded. The government statistic concerning negative saving is really statistically misleading. Gov’t don’t count investment as saving, they don’t count stock options as saving.
Well, say I have invested $50k in GE stock, that’s $50k spent; I have zero saving in their book. Say, Microsoft gave me 50000 shares of stock option of MSFT stocks at year 1995. It’s now worth $1 million dollar. You know what, that’s not saving from the government point of view too.
My point is: The credit situation of this country is not that bad. Sub-prime sector is, no doubt, but not the general financial health of the country. I don’t want to be a nay-sayer just for the sake of it.