US Economy Headed for Toilet: Great Depression 2?

[russ_watters]

Considering that the price/earnings ratio of the market is still AFAIK at historical highs, that claim has limited credibility. Really, there are other economic factors that are probably contributing more, probably the same ones that led to both your father and your mother working rather than just your father. The fact is that the retirement age has been climbing and that worker income has been shrinking relative to cost of living for a long time, and pointing to the .com rush as a cause is rather silly.

My parents' situation is a little more complicated than that - my mom works two-half days a week and its as much a hobby as a job. Anyway, being so close to retirement age, they probably should have had less in the market, but the market did lose a pretty substantial fraction of its value 4 years ago.

Also, I'm not sure what you base that assertion regarding worker income and cost of living: according to the census bureau, every income group has been increasing for the past 50 years or so, relative to inflation.

You know, there was a real estate burst in the US about 75 years ago. It didn't do much either.

There was quite a bit more to that than just a real-estate bubble - and the situation doesn't exist anymore.

Let's say that we get into a nightmare scenario where...

That is a pretty bad scenario, but I don't think its at all possible/reaonable.