A US perspective on the situation....

Very little in the US is made in the USA....as the US dollar drops like it has over the last six months the price of all "goods" in the US will climb. In the US we are starting to see the expansion of price increases and the "catch up" by the government is as always too slow too late....with a normal economic time lag of six months to one year for the full effect of monetary policy to take effect.

The idiots in Washington and /or on CNBC keep talking of "no inlation" in the US...they are totally wrong in terms of ordinary people. Their computations are badly skewed by what they call noexistant "wage increases" in the US. People are losing their higher paying jobs and are having to except lower paying or more than one job to keep pace with expenses.

There is going to be economic blood in the streets in 2008 in the US and there is vertually nothing the FED can do at this time to stop it...The housing bubble is no where near its end...In Hawaii ( a very high real estate market) we have not been hit hard yet...but believe me it is coming...the last time it hit here real estate prices dropped and remained low for over ten years....it is coming again...the hot markets on the outside Islands of Maui, Kauai and Hawaii are starting to see the buyers leave and the inventory is growing....The real rich people with lots of money wil/can ride it out but the speculators will get killed!!

Time to get out of debt if you can and live within your means.