I am not sure, but imo we need some serious technical inovation to move us away from a service economy. We are being too creative in areas that create imaginary future profit instead of product sales that create real profit.

Another creative example we are seeing is the new promotions of "reverse mortgages". There have always been reverse mortgages but only recently have they been promoted and sold as something good and inovative.

Paper income is created by interest charges against advances on collateral. The problem is, any good lending agreement should require performance by both parties that assures an equitable outcome for both parties. With the reverse mortgage the outcome is likely to be negative for one or the other parties.

We need better mousetraps and not better ways to go into debt.