The next Great Depression?

So how are the US-based correspondents coping with this?

Both Charlie Cross and George Zimek live in California, which seems to 
have been not only on the forefront of the green madness, but also 
leading the pack on the residential property bubble.

With $1 trillion of losses now becoming the "accepted" wisdom and with 
literally tens of millions of Americans looking down the barrel of 
negative home equity and the "jingle mail" option looking more 
attractive by the day, how have you guys been affected?

To be honest, Australia has had even more of a property bubble than the 
US and the blow up is only just beginning here - like in the UK & NZ and 
elsewhere. This will be exacerbated by the recent election of a totally 
inept Labor government (in Aus.) and I have no doubt many Australians 
will be in for a rude shock when they discover property in fact does not 
always go up in value, nor are their jobs guaranteed to last forever.

It will certainly be interesting to see how it all develops, given that 
"jingle mail" is not an option for Australians (the banks do have 
recourse to your other assets if your home auction does not cover the
debt).

The word "depression" seems to be gaining traction, however. If/when the 
$145 trillion credit derivative sector blows up, then it's all over and 
anything is possible.

Stress levels at work over the last three or so months do make me look 
wistfully at islands for sale in Tonga/Vanuatu, with no power, no 
Internet and no phones, so as to get away from it all...

Your comments would be welcome.