Debt
Plenty of bad news in a recent report on average family income, which declined 2.3% from 2001 to 2004. But to me the scariest was this bit:

The Fed survey found that debt as a percent of total assets rose to 15% in 2004, from 12.1% in 2001. Mortgages to finance home purchases were by far the biggest share of total debt at 75.2% in 2004, unchanged from 2001.

So personal debt is up, and it's not due to taking on more in home mortgages.

And it's no small increase. 12 to 15 may be an gain of only 3 points, but that's a 25% increase (try to follow along, Richard Cohen) in debt as a percentage of total assets in just 3 years. So, that's more than just a tracking of the fact that income declined.