Steve is of the financial school similar to most of the rest of those saying "we are screwed".

The positive things to take away from something that seems so dismal is 1. that the country has lived through one great depression and came out of it. We can do it again. 2. Being forewarned is to be forearmed. With some preparation a person can come out ok even through difficult situations.

Even if a person thinks these guys are all wet and the economy is recovering, what is the harm in taking at least a few steps to protect oneself from a severe economic downturn? If a person only devotes 10% of his wealth or assets to "catastrophe insurance" best case he does poorly on that 10% because the catastrophe never comes. Intermediate case is he is really glad he made some preparation and therefore in lots better shape than if he had done no preparation. Worst case is he has done no preparation and is caught completely off guard.

The people that are telling us everything is looking better are the same group that never seen the wreck coming, are the ones in charge when it happened, and now are the ones in charge of fixing the problem. The ones telling us things are going to get worse are the ones who were warning us ahead of time the situation we are in now (even though some of them were years too early). So who do you want to believe? Of course we WANT to believe everything is going to be fine and that the recession is over and we are on the way to recovery. Many signs and data tell me that is NOT what I SHOULD believe.

 That's the way I look at it.

John