Random thoughts
I wonder, sometimes, if we consider enough the kind of upset that this economic "downturn" has on all those who are experiencing layoffs and cutbacks and unpaid vacations and salary cuts. You listen to the news, and they talk about how an upturn is expected and less people are being laid off this month than next.

But losing a job is not something that disappears as soon as the stock market starts to recover. Somebody who loses a job -- especially somebody older -- may not easily fit into another position. (And "retraining" usually ends of making money only for those doing the training.) Salaries reduced are not automatically raised back to their former levels when things get better. Savings and retirement accounts that were decimated by the market and then by necessity may never be restocked.

Once an economic recovery begins, the media will invariably start acting as if everything is back to normal. But people's lives are being changed in ways that they will not quickly recover from.