People have funded personal spending and retirement the last 30 years from asset appreciation rather than saving. We are at the point where Americans on average are broke. Over the last ten years houses are up 300% and the Dow +10,000 points. But the savings are not there. What goes up must come down. I think that over the next 6 months cash is king. Gold and oil will bottom out by April 2009. Longterm it doesn't look good for the dollar. I don't buy that the US will go into a deflationary spiral. The world is swimming in dollars. The US has a 10.8 trillion dollar national debt, 500 billion deficit and 700 billion trade deficit.