The article is huge so here's the main point:<p>"Here, ladies and gentlemen, is the crux of the problem: We are reliably informed that whatever part of the economic crisis can’t be pinned on Wall Street — or on mortgage-related financial insanity — can be pinned on consumers who overspent. But personal consumption amounts to some 70 percent of the American economy. So if we don’t spend, we don’t recover. Fiscal health isn’t possible until money is again sloshing into cash registers, including those at this mall and every other retailer."<p>I think the statement that money must be sloshing into cash registers again is a misnomer. Why must we spend money on items we don't really need? Is it our fault that the products are "nice to haves", but not so nice that we're willing to spend on them? I believe that the products and services offered will have to stepped up a notch; become items that improve people's lives and increase happiness.<p>I see these times as Darwin's law applied to products, services, and businesses in general. If it's not profitable it should fail.<p>That said the current mess of the economy is at such a scale that it's hard for me to even keep straight in my head. As Henry Ford said, "It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning. "