Americans' net worth shrinks $1.33 trillion in 1Q - AP

But, don't be discouraged. All that has to happen, according to the article, is that the now broke American public just has to start spending again. Which is exactly what caused the recession in the first place.:crazy:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090611/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/us_net_worth_7

WASHINGTON – American households lost $1.33 trillion of their wealth in the first three months of the year as the recession took a bite out of stock portfolios and dragged down home prices.

The Federal Reserve reported Thursday that household net worth fell to $50.38 trillion in the January-March quarter, the lowest level since the third quarter of 2004. The first-quarter figure marked a decline of 2.6 percent, or $1.33 trillion, from the final quarter of 2008.

Net worth represents total assets such as homes and checking accounts, minus liabilities like mortgages and credit card debt.

The damage to wealth in the first quarter came from the sinking stock market. The value of Americans' stock holdings dropped 5.8 percent from the final quarter of last year.

Another hit came from falling house prices. The value of household real-estate holdings fell 2.4 percent. Collectively, homeowners had 41.4 percent equity in their homes in the first quarter. That was down from 42.9 percent in the fourth quarter.:crazy:

"Starve the beast - Cause America to FAIL - That's yet another dose of our Republicon Homelander Chickenhawk-style Shock & Awe, Baby, Smirk"

- xCommander AWOL (R)

calculated using a rough estimate of 320 million residents of the US

This is a loss at the rate of $16k/year/person... welcome to the third world, folks.