People are fools to listen to these people again.
The last time the market fell for 3 consecutive years, the best investment was gold and treasuries. Those people who bought equities at all in 1929-1930 has to wait 20 years to return to that same level.
In an extended bear market, any amount blindly thrown at equities is likely to lose money. The smartest people now are not in equities at all, but in treasuries and material (gold, silver, tangible assets), and CDs. They aren't going to be making much money - but at the least they are not losing it.
Probably so much for GOP control of Congress for the forseeable future.
What you're really saying is that people shouldn't be owning stocks right now. That may be true, but mining stocks have done quite well over the past six months. There are many counter-cyclical stocks to be purchased if you want a diversified portfolio with some upward price exposure.
Having said that, we are in a major bear market and I do tend to agree that major capitulation still has not occurred.
When we start reading a slew of stories about how the stock market is a bad place to be putting money and how Greenspan really was right about "irrational exhuberance", then we will be getting there. The dollar is going to continue to fall and the consensus will be that America is not good place to in which to invest. That will be the bottom.