Paula, I feel you're not seeing the big picture. The economy is the dog that wags the long tail of the stock market. That the economy follows up and down cycles is a fundamental truth. Since the market anticipates the economy the wag is invariably wider than the dog. (expectations will always diverge from reality) The reality is that most of the retirement accounts and college savings that were wiped out were the ones that were chasing an expanding bubble and didn't rebalance their portfolio when the direction of the wag started to reverse and approach the reality of the economy. The shorts were merely smart enough to see the over valuation and bet on that reality. The next truism is that those same retirement and college savers won't re enter the market again until they 'feel sure it save again' ie just before the next peak.
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