I too am not an economist I am a truck driver. Six or seven years ago the housing boom started in the US and I was amazed at the number of subdivisions with million dollar houses which began to appear around the large urban centers which I travelled to. Who were these homes being built for? Boatloads of wealthy immigrants perhaps? No way, they were being flipped for inflated profits. Now this excess inventory sits on the Banks balance sheets waiting to be sold. If home values decline below borrowed costs additional foreclosures will be likely. I believe this to be the deflation which is most feared. On the other hand US money printing presses are on fire and have been for some time now. Every new dollar printed leaves existing dollars worth less than before and the national government debt is over 11 trillion now. It was the availability of lots of easy money is what created this situation to begin with so what's next? Maybe we are in for some kind of negative financial event on a frequent basis from now on. Banks don't want to lend and wealthy countries will be less willing to hold US debt. I suppose when the full effect of all this will become much more clear when it all works it's way through the financial system. Kind of like the complacency on Titanic. The mood got real ugly when opinion changed!