My opinion...

If one's nearing retirement, hopefully they have other funds and cash tucked away outside of the market and hope the market rebounds in a couple years.

For those who have to work for many many more years, time is on your side. The market will bounce back, it's just going through it's cycle. The market hasn't been down over any five year run historically.

BUT on the topic of bail out, there shouldn't be any... it's all greed, execs are walking away with golden parachutes. $11 million severance package for the WaMu CEO and three weeks on the job. Many of us won't have $11 million over our entire working careers.

I saw this coming, with the 6/1 ARM loans and interest only loans, it was a matter of time that it would catch up to people keeping up with The Jones. I have no idea why a long term home owner would go for a 6/1 ARM or interest only. Those are for speculators and house flippers.