And almost every Financial Planner I've talked to thinks that what our country needs is a nice healthy dose of inflation. And it's for the exact reason you alluded to.

However, I think the one thing that keeps bringing us down is gas prices. I don't think it's a coincidence in 2007 when gas prices hit $4/gallon that we immediately fell into the worst depression in 80 years. And then again this year. Just when we started to recover, gas prices approached $4 and BOOM, we're now falling back into another recession.

If gas can get back to $2 and housing continues to rebound, we'll be just fine. If only Obama and Congress would focus on these 2 things!