Thanks, s-s. I can't critique that as it's beyond my skill sets , but I think I can follow it all the way through point (5), and to parts of (6). However, I can't really get my head around persistent deflation yet, and that seems to be the immediate concern of the economists, despite the high inflation that would seem to be unavoidable in the longer run.

I also think that not only would the public reject the notion of living within their means, but that the governments can't let us go there. The payouts and stimulus attempts are not intended as rewards to the large influential players, but to grease the wheels for continued borrowing and spending, and in fact, inflation. Maybe they want our home prices to go up so they have appeared to increase in value, and maybe they want to have the crushing debt mitigated by a debased currency over time. (?)