Gavin's Current event (depressing...sorry!)

A couple weeks ago I came across this one article that talked about Howard Davidowitz, a big time retail consultant, and how he says that the economic crisis can get only from bad to worse. He claims that the standard of living in the U.S. will be changed permanently. The numbers we are looking at here are $8,000,000,000,000 in "negative wealth from declining home values", $10,000,000,000,000 "negative wealth effect from weakened capital markets", and finally $14,000,000,000,000 in consumer debt. What Davidowitz predicts is that people will start to downgrade in the the different things they buy and will go cheaper overall. In conclusion, he says that they economy will be "debt-fueled" and that it is the "end of rampant consumerism." The problem today is that people can't borrow like they have in the past.

Question: Is Davidowitz's statement justified? Thinking back to the Great Depression and Roosevelt's New Deals, can we truly say that the standard of living in America will change permanently?