2. Political - while having total morons serving at all levels of the government may make for entertaining tv, it's not something which tends to inspire confidence on the part of investors.

3. Fiscal. This country lives on hot checks and at this point neither political party knows any other way of doing business. The fiscal reckoning has already started by bond purchasers demanding a yield premium for the risk they are taking in buying our bonds. And it's only going to get worse, especially as the social security fiscal cliff approaches in the next several years.

4. Corporate. People like Warren Buffett have been saying for YEARS that our stocks are grossly overvalued, but our stock market has been propped up by a belief in American exceptionalism. Now that belief is evaporating faster than ever before, and people are starting to take a hard look at what is actually under the hood of a lot of these companies they have been investing in. In many cases, the answers are not reassuring.

So I'll pass on trying to find the bottom of this market, at least anytime soon. Feels like we're heading steadily into an Idiocracy, and people are going to look to Europe and China for the adults in the room.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5714089&forum_id=2:#48867543)