Consumer Joe Sixpack is still partying like it's 1999...
He's been having such a good time ... and hasn't yet noticed the beer keg is about to run dry.
It's human nature to simply extrapolate the present situation into the future...
And Joe Sixpack just hasn't been paying attention to changing economic circumstances.
NOTHING ever stays the same -- the only truly eternal constant is CHANGE.
A collapsing real estate market is increasingly diverting credit card purchases away from the mall, car dealer, and electronics retailer...to the grocery store, gas station, doctor's office and utility company.
Discretionary-retail merchants and capital goods manufacturers will suffer sharp earnings declines.
As personal credit lines are exhausted, payments will be defaulted upon, and credit ratings ruined.
The courts will be overwhelmed, the legal system clogged with bankruptcies, divorces and various contract litigations.
The banks will have crippled cash flows, and incur extraordinary expenses -- and find themselves in a solvency crisis.
Desperate, cash-strapped folks will need to liquidate savings and any other investments for retirement.
Equities, bonds and other liquid assets will be sold.
Funds will sell off to meet redemptions.
The days of the bull are numbered.
