What is the biggest factor in the markets current slide?
I think it is the disruption in Europe that’s causing an overall de-risking. But the market’s rise was really driven by expectations that earnings and unemployment would be far better than they’ve turned out to be. As we get into the second half of 2010, the hope for 2010 has diminished because the package of economic data has been disappointing. You’ve got challenges I don’t think people fully thought through because they got market fatigue. For almost two years the market was going down. They wanted to be hopeful about something, and the fundamentals really didn’t pull through for them. Where would the U.S. economy be if we didn’t have the debt problems in Europe and in Greece? A lot the problems in our economy are our problems. For the last 30 years you’ve had a real structural shift towards a consumer-based economy driven by leverage. With or without Europe, you have the unavoidable issue of the consumer delevering. That means homeownership going from 70 percent probably back to 64
