Dear 4PW,
Some very interesting opinions and analysis, many parts of which I agree with in part and some I believe are unsubstantiated.
The pain in the stock market indices is not over yet - look what will happen when the next bad news is announced which I expect will be the unemployment figures for the US. We will see a further significant fall.
I do not see, however, the freefall and eradication of stocks from the market listings that ocured in the Depression. There will be significant numbers of stocks that are delisted but this will be as a result of returning to private hands - much like the present efforts of Richard Li to take PCCW private on the cheap. You will recognise that the present situation is an opportunity for the wealthy to secure and increase that wealth by taking the low levels of economic confidence in the general population. This is the first time that the much wider share-owning population has experienced such a collapse of the structure of the market.
Going on to other issues, there is no doubt that this GFC IS different. But, the question is " What are you comparing it too?" Anyone who is comparing the present challenge to that of the 1930s depression will have to admit that the total environment and financial market is different to that which prevailed back then. Global electronic trading, computerised trading programmes, the lack of exchange controls, global trading in commodities, the list goes on and on.
As this environment is different to that which occured in the Depression, many of the basic pressures and root causes of the collapse are structurally different. It therefore follows that the root solutions will be different as well.
In the Depression of the 1930s, the industries that were dessimated were the driving forces of manufacturing industry. What we see today is the collapse of the financial sector and the problems that this has brought to the service and maufacturing industries - we have not seen the collapse of the manufacturing industries themselves.
Concerted efforts by international governments and organisations is more effective now because communications and information flows are faster. Now, I think that most of the efforts to try to stimulate the economies of various countries are misguided - giving tax rebates doesn't allow Joe Average to stimulate the domestic economy - he just goes and buys imported goods or saves the money to pay off debt.
Anyway, the basic result of everything I have stated is that the efforts to prevent major structural damage to our basic economies are more likely to be able to prevent the long term slide into another Depression.
Your comments on the dangers of remaining in the market and refusing to accept moderate losses before more comes along are well put and I agree with them.
Cash is King and avoid debt at all times. Invest in "value" - there is a flight to value. Strategic investments are the order of the day - don't thin k of short term appreciation at this time.
Best of luck to all.