Addendum to financial disaster

As an additional bleak thought, the current national savings rate in the US is now officially negative. That means on average, people spent more money last year than they earned. This hasn't happened since the great depresssion. Combine that the fact that for many Americans, their biggest investment is in their house, means little in the way of liquid assets. Why does this portend a financial disaster. My prediction is that as baby boomers start to retire in mass, they are going to destroy the housing market. If many (most?) of them need to sell their homes to fund the lifestyle they are accustomed to, what is that going to do to housing prices? Combine this potential significant drop in housing prices and the probably upcoming Social Security debacle, and we have the potential of having a country filled with the ederly living in poverty.