Over the 10 years through January, an investor holding the stocks in the S&P 500, and reinvesting the dividends, would have lost about 5.1 percent a year after adjusting for inflation, the Worst Decade Ever. Yes, the Worst Decade Ever, deeper than the Great Depression.
The slump has further to go.
Pensions and retirements are following foreclosures, while jingoists still insist that coddling the rich for trickles and laissez-faire markets will drive consumer pocket money back to the malls. So much has not been said. So many are responsible, including the brochure-mechanics, from talk shows to investment parlors, that gummed nonsense about eternal up-markets on Wall Street.