mensaboy,
Certainly the Americans will know what to do in November. I predict a democrat victory and I am not "singing in the rain" yet.
The same way you mention about Alan Greenspan's pessimistic vision, there are other opinions too. Here is one from The National Post (USA):
At some point, U.S. financial stocks and the broader U.S. financial market is going to look like a tremendous buying opportunity. But things will get worse before they get better and Alan Greenspan’s televised weekend comments about this being the worst financial crisis in his lifetime certainly doesn’t help. Greenspan should know since he should shoulder much of the blame for sewing the seeds of this crisis.
Looking at a hypothetical title "bad news is good news for the long-term investor", my belief is the worst is gone in the USA. Europe is starting to feel the real pinch despite much heroic resistance across the Continent in the last 6 months: The recent British economy data indicated so. Today's news will make it slightly worse.
It is very easy and quick to destroy an economy, but extremely slow and difficult to rebuild it. However, the American economy will recover more easily than the European one.
In the past 8 years it was getting difficult to tell the difference between the good guys and bad guys on the world scene.
Politicians are all the same. It doesn't matter what colour, party or creed. The important thing is always to have good people around us which is a tough matter because you never know who's friend or foe and
try to enjoy every momment if you can.