A problem of scale indeed

Everyone's pinning the recent stock market gyrations on the "problems" in the sub-prime loan market. There are some problems there, to be sure. But this small amount of media-driven "turmoil" shouldn't take down the U.S. economy.

Raymond, how big is household net worth in the U.S.? About a hundred dollars?
Actually, it’s a lot bigger than that — about $53 trillion. In other words, the recent increase in sub-prime foreclosures amounts to 0.01 percent of net U.S. household wealth.