Undoubtedly, Dan, all of those things are a big part of what we're seeing now. (And if you want to probe a little deeper, why did people do such foolish things in the first place? What created that desire for things they truly couldn't afford and then created the illusion that they could afford it? Who or what made people believe that living their lives on borrowed money was a good idea?) It just seems to me that the press/media exacerbates the situation all too often, creating lemming-like behavior as people react to the "hot" news. Too often there is no balance and little moderation, because let's face it - those things don't come in 30-second sound bites for the attention deficient. TV news is probably the worst offender - some of the better daily newspapers actually do still try - but far too many people rely entirely on TV for their news.
Paddy, there has been a fabrication of the state of the economy since Y2K, and it was not a product of the media, the media is just a delivery system doing their bidding. A student of the economy could easily demonstrate how an additional 3-5 trillion dollar national debt could give the appearance of a healthy economy as long as you do not mention both in the same conversation. We're not talking ourselves into a recession, people are finally admitting the truth.
Since the only hardware product introduced by Jobs was, if I'm not mistaken, the MBAir, and folks here as elsewhere, both Mac and PC advocates renounce it, I'd say it's a Dud. I happen to be in the market for a New Notebook and was looking forward to a SSD drive unit, but this certainly isn't it.
The emphasis has been misplaced; no one I know is desperately looking for a thinner Notebook, what they are looking for is a smaller and lighter NB that will fit into their network.
No Optical Drive, No Ethernet, No user replaceable battery, a weaker resolution than the competition and a price 50% higher or more? This product is not for me and it's not for anyone in the general population. It is specifically targeted to the Frequent Flyer crowd, who by law can not carry a spare battery, who are dependent on Wifi, and who would be more likely to have a .Mac account for storage. If there is a increase in the quality and range of the MBA WiFi that would be the only plus in IMO.
I suspect that the future of MBA will offer a less expensive option, but if it's based on this configuration the population will find alternatives in Linux. I can say this with some confidence owning a SSD drive NB with No optical drive.
