Silver linings

The phenomenon Ezra describes here isn't all bad.

Households have, for some time, been trying to preserve their normal consumption patterns. When those patterns outgrew their incomes, or their incomes dropped, they began borrowing against their homes for the money. Now that home equity is tumbling -- indeed, equity to value is expected to dip below 50 percent for the first time in history -- they can no longer borrow against their homes. So they're borrowing against their credit.

And, soon enough, creditors will bring their hammers down upon them. But look. I don't consume conspicuously. I would like to consume conspicuously, but I don't do it. I would, for instance, love to have a better iPod and a flatscreen TV and an American telecaster and a ukulele. But it has never made sense for me to go out and put those sorts of things on my credit card, so I haven't. As a reward for my restraint, it looks like I'll soon be able to pick up all the material goods I could ever want around the corner on Irving street when some desperate family is forced to hold a yard sale to avoid filing for bankruptcy. And surely we can all celebrate my coming bounty. No?