'The government can ship a whole lot of bottled water to the people but when it runs out you still have a broken pump and no water coming through. '
Yes, shipping of bottled water makes sense, as it will allow you to drink, cook and do other basic things, if not take a shower every single day etc.
The situation is not as bad as 'no water and bottled water' scenario. The situation is more like water supply has reduced to 25% with low pressure and there is a threat of total freeze up down the road if situation is not corrected.
Somewhere it was mentioned that it will take 30% rise in real estate prices for toxic debts in RE sector to turn normal again. Historically, over 30 years, the RE prices rise on average 4% a year, so sit back for atleast 3-5 years for economic variables to rebound.............if the RE prices do not go down any further from here.
Some folks, including Buffet are saying that there are other asset classes like credit cards, treasuries, insurance that are also loaded with toxicity and would require a bail out. So be ready for other bottled water trucks on the residential blocks.
US has to bring down the defense budget to 300B a year from current 600B. That translates to $3T in 10 years and surely cancels out the recent stimulus packages. US should also try to refinance the debt interest rates to both locals and foreign governments. Nations get this help quite often and unfortunately it is now US that needs this help.
Good news around the blocks is that Oil might go down to $25-30 a barrel and that is another boost of lower interest rates to the world economies to seek a good jump start from the recessionary downturn.