indeed, look at the great depression, look at japan in the 90s. in each of these secular bear markets, markets rebounded for gains as high as 100% from the previous low...yet still the ultimate direction of the market was downward. DJIA will rebound at some point to around 12k, then back down to 5k. it will be most amusing watching the last hopeful traders plow back into the market only to fall into an obvious bear trap.<p>ultimately we will get hyperinflation as the govt prints literally trillions to monetize the various debts of the govt. the strong dollar now is just a head fake as the yen carry trade and other various forex arbitrages unwind.<p>all real estate will lose 50%. everything. that is what happened in japan in the 90s...even desirable tokyo condos lost 50%. 50% will be the <i>minimum</i> downside for real estate.<p>actually its worth noting that when japan went down the toilet in the 90s, they were the world's biggest saver and lender. we are the world's biggest borrower. so don't expect anything as gentle as japan's ten-year recession.<p>expect an end to all of this around 2020, and this will only end when people see taking on debt, any debt, as about as attractive as sharing needles with a junkie. when this is over its impossible to say what the economy will look like, but you can be sure people will be dealing in tangibles...cash or barter.<p>the best thing you can do now is -preserve capital-. you are going to need it to <i>survive</i>. forget the charlatans telling you to "double down" because they have some anecdotes of companies exploding out of temporary down times....none of your luminaries have lived through anything like this, and indeed many of the superstars of the roaring twenties were literally gutted by the market turmoil of the 30s...they just refused to believe the downside would last very long, they thought it was all just a buying opportunity...little did they know how far things would fall.