Almost every single item my family consumes, from cars to food to clothes to rent to satellite TV to electronic toys, has declined in price say 10% to 20% even 30% since late 2007.
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I will beg to differ on this matter. I bought a 2007 Chevy Tahoe in early 2007 used for $33K, I sold it in mid 2008 (before the meltdown) for $26K, which was the most I could get for the vehicle after a 2 months of marketing on Cars.com, Auto Trader and Ebay.
I was recently foolish enough to buy the exact same car, yes a 2007 Chevy Tahoe, loaded with everything (4×4, nav, dvd, etc.) and similar miles to the one I sold and couldn’t get it for less than $28K (I had to buy it out of Texas and have it shipped). I challenge anyone to prove me wrong, but certain vehicles have responded opposite, which makes me believe we are facing inflationary forces along with deflationary.
No economist can predict where we are going to be 6, 12 or 24 months from now. I think the best strategy is leveraging your portfolio with a bit of cash, gold and keeping yourself as far away from the stock market as possible. I believe in 2009 we created 2 bubbles once again, which include both the stock market and RE markets. Crash 2.0 is coming soon. Unfortunately the hard part is figuring out the best strategy to mitigate the risks.