This article is positively chilling. it's the simple math needed to reduce unemployment to 5%.
The Automatic Earth: September 28 2009: A Quicksand Quagmire
Simple math, dismal conclusion. Essentially the article shows that it simply can't be done. Not in 5 years and probably not in 10 years.
The July S&P/Case-Shiller 20 city Home Price Index was just released and said prices fell 13.3% this month year over year. This makes perfect sense as foreclosures are at an all time high and that shadow inventory of 7 million foreclosures is still out there.
Our economy is "what you see is what you get" for the foreseeable future. Let me qualify this: This is a BEST case scenario. If I've read the Chinese wrong, things could get much , much worse.