Dr. Mike Walden, North Carolina Cooperative Extension economist in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University, responds:

"Very bad, unfortunately. Through the end of 2008, households lost $13 trillion of their wealth. That's 17 percent of the total. This, as I said, is for the entire year 2008. The recession actually began at the end of 2007. This is the greatest slide in household wealth since the 1930s. This is unprecedented in that 70-year period. Stock market wealth, of course, is way down . . . about 40 percent. But what is very unusual is wealth in real estate, mainly people's homes, is also off. Up through the end of 2008, on average, that was down 15 percent. So this is devastating news. I think this is one big reason why this recession really is different. Now there is some good news. The good news is that consumers are responding by trying to put their financial ship, if you will, in order, on course. Consumers are borrowing less, and that way, they're trying to respond to the reduction in the value of their assets. But there's no question, absolutely no question, the loss in wealth during this economic downturn is what makes this recession so fundamentally different from the recessions that we've gotten used to in the last 40 or 50 years."