No not only more than 2 million people could lose their homes but thousands of others are going to lose their jobs. Many of which could have afforded their mortgage repayments… until being laid-off because of the criminal banking practices exposed by Danny Schechter and the like.

Citigroup plans to announce a writedown of as much as $24 billion and layoffs that could total as much as 24,000 due to subprime and credit-related losses, CNBC has learned today. Citigroup is likely to cut between 17,000 and 24,000 positions over the course of the year through a combination of layoffs. attrition and selling off businesses, sources said, as part of Pandit’s cost-cutting plan. Previously, it was estimated that the layoffs could reach 20,000….

As more and more pundits start to question the measures taken to stimulate the economy, pessimism is on the menu. Peter Gosselin who writes forLos Angeles Times calls it ‘the bubble-prone economy‘:

As presidential candidates and government policymakers rush to offer prescriptions for the deteriorating U.S. economy, some are beginning to worry about a disturbing possibility: This may not be your traditional downturn. And the tools that helped restore prosperity in the past may prove less effective this time around…. The United States has become increasingly prone to financial bubbles — huge, seemingly irreversible rises in the value of one sort of asset or another, followed by sudden and largely unforeseen plunges… The Treasury tried to orchestrate a privately financed fund of $100 billion to help exotic “special investment vehicles,” for example. But the big banks that would have benefited found that almost no one would contribute, so the effort was dropped. Meanwhile, the Fed’s efforts to deal with liquidity problems failed to address more serious solvency problems tied to the rising probability of home-value losses exceeding $3 trillion….

The other side-effects linked to this deadly debt binge are now too obvious to be ignored. People continue to pile on credit card while not being able to comply with their monthly repayments.

Merrill Lynch economist David Rosenberg said the rise in credit card usage during the last six months has been rare — a level that typically shows up at times of “intense financial stress.” In October, he said, credit card balances soared at over an 11 percent annual rate. Over the last six months, it was 9.5 percent annualized — a level that also occurred in the opening months of the 2001 recession… In a worrisome sign for investors and credit card firms, analysts have underestimated the kinds of problems that were disclosed Thursday though they have said for months that housing problems eventually would spill over to consumers and their credit cards. During the last few years, the credit card business had been highly profitable. Consumers were able to pluck cash out of their home equity and consolidate credit card debts. But with mortgage lending rules tighter and home equity vanishing as home prices fall, refinancing is no longer a quick fix… Rosenberg said the recent credit card figures suggest what’s still keeping consumers in stores: “Consumers are hanging on by a thread, but not really a thread,” he said. “The consumer is hanging on by a piece of plastic.”… more - 01/11

Until we do not put an end to this bottomless deception, we will continue Consuming Our Way to Unhappiness