Two reasons for the downturn - either due to the market having...

Two reasons for the downturn - either due to the market having no right to be so high, or that the majority believe it does not have the right to be so high. If it's the latter then the market will restore itself and resume its uptrend. If it's the former then it could get real ugly because it has gone so high without any real repairs ever been carried out to the global economies. The only thing I can think of that they have done to help us all is to reduce interest rates and pump out stimulus. Combine those 2 with falling fuel costs then what had occurred over the last 11 months is totally logical.

My concerns are that since then is that unemployment in the USA is still rising, getting credit is getting harder, the US dollar is becoming scarcer and therefore of more value. Seriously I think that maybe the gloom merchants were right - allow the market to fall under its own weight, allow the abusive banks to collapse, allow individuals who have over indulged in leverage to loose their assets and to give out food parcels and stamps to the rapidly poorer people. Once that finds its way through then new needs will arise, with new entrepreneurs addressing the new needs and a system that will be quick to nip the bud of any scheme that could cause another bubble.

But that's in the perfect world. We live in a TV show where each ending is a happy ending where the rich people never need to work hard because we have less well off people in over populated countries tripping over each other to make stuff for us for very little cost. The problem with that is it has exposed the western world for what it really is; a large, pathetic, ageing, greedy and ignorant piece of stool.