gsilver wrote:
I don't think that there's any possibility of having a repeat of the Great Depression.
Locally grown food alone can be had in enough supply for me to fill my car with it, without going broke, and I have practically no savings.
I've heard stories about how my grandfather had to use cereal boxes as shoes.
Will I ever get to that point? It seems impossible. Right now is the weeding out the public's greed and excess, nothing more.
I doubt most people who are in a position to invest heavily in the stock market today would ever be stupid enough to put themselves in such a situation that would allow the great depression to happen again - its too recent for there not to have been a lesson learned and there are people alive today who remember what it was like. The people at risk for such losses are mainly younger people, and in general they wouldn't have enough resources to be living off heavy market investments. Older people are more aware of the importance of spreading their money through various investments - foreign markets, cd's, bonds, etc. Can't say it will be the same in a 100 years though