Reduced personal wealth, no easy access to credit, reduced consumer demand... but that isn't the whole story.<p>IMHO the health care problem has a huge impact on this. I'm a Canadian expat in the US right now, and I unfortunately had to pay a visit to an American ER last night. I'm insured, so my out of pocket costs are manageable, but imagine a startup founder struggling to get to ramen profitability doing the same.<p>Oh, unrelated note: the whole "private health care works better" thing is total hogwash. ER wait times here are as bad as they are in Canada, main difference is that in one place you're not paying through the nose for it.