What is the dynamic of mortgage finances now?

摘要

In the years of the boom, people were borrowing cheaply against their houses to buy SUVs, new plasma TVs, or whatever the case may be. That has clearly ended. Now, in part because of the drop in home prices, you actually have a paying down of mortgage debt. So that particular fuel for consumer spending is gone. Going forward, the fuel for consumer spending growth is going to have to come from the labor market, from employment growth, from wages growing, and so forth.