Letters to the Editor
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You can't sell your debt
You may put up the money for a Cadillac using a credit card, but you aren't going to carry it on your balance. That's where these figures are deceiving. On the non-consumer side, people tell me small business lending rates are brutal.
Rising home asset prices in this enviroment actually punish the homeowner. Assuming home prices drop 50% and your employment situation doesn't change, (as they didn't change much on the way up) your percentage of equity, assuming you have some skin in the game, goes up. All the standard metrics in this economy don't work. You can always sell that Caddy, but you can't sell the debt you owe on hospital care, or home repairs. If you're a politician you have to assume that debt is not going away.