See that graph over there? Yeah, that one. That’s the graph pointing to 12 metropolitan areas whose housing values have been tanking and will continue to tank well into the foreseeable future. 
How do you ask people whose main asset is their home to shoulder even more debt from the moronic choices of our “leaders?” When these electeds should have been saving they were spending. If you could spend your way out of this depression like malaise from which we’re suffering we’d been well shod of it by now. We ain’t. And THIS report says it will get even worse. Here’s an excerpt:“While not unexpected, the unceasing declines in home values signal that we’re in for a long, bleak winter of continued troubles for the housing market. The length and depth of the current housing recession is rivaling the Great Depression’s real estate downturn, and, with encouraging signs fading, will easily eclipse it in the coming months.”
The President and his advisers like to talk about the ‘new normal.’ The new normal exists for everyone but the government/planning class. Here’s another example.Yesterday I spent four hours of my four hour program highlighting the amount of money schools (and fire and police for that matter) are deprived of because of Portland’s obsession with planning and “paying” for it with “Tax Increment Financing” under Urban Renewal. The long and short of it is this: The government declares a place “blighted” (even if it’s not such as south water front, the airport, GOVERNMENT CAMP) and declares it an urban renewal area and begins skimming off the top any “more” property taxes that may come in because the area is nicer. Sometimes it’s nice if the government steps in and starts the ball rolling but they’ve abused the process routinely. Under normal circumstances, that money should go to public safety (cops and fire) and schools. But the money is stolen and given to the planning class to design their utopias complete with silver unicorns and pink ponies.