http://www.fool.com/retirement/general/2009/06/23/its-already-worse-than-the-depression
quote from above url.
According to Ibbotson Associates, of the 74 rolling 10-year periods since 1926 (i.e., 1926-1935, 1927-1936, and so on), U.S. large-cap stocks posted negative returns in just three of them. The first two were 1929-1938 (-0.89% compound annual return) and 1930-1939 (-0.05% compound annual return), and involved the Depression. The third loser decade was the most recent -- and the worst. From 1999-2008, U.S. large-cap stocks "returned" a compound annual average of negative 1.38%.
Who would have thought back in 1999, when we were more worried about Y2K than our 401(k), that in the subsequent decade big-name American stocks would do worse than they did in the 1930s? Not many. end quote.
So, if I'm reading this right of all 74 rolling 10 year periods, the last ten year period is the worst since 1926.
And if that is the case I think there is a whole new dynamic than we have seen before. One of the causes of this new dynamic is global warming. The droughts that have encreased along with aberrant rain patterns and weather patterns have played havoc with crops worldwide over the last 10 years what with Australian farmers in the outback committing suicide in droves and most of Australia's crops failing from lack of water during those same times and various other problems worldwide.
If the period from 1926 to 1996 was a period of more effective use of farmland and crop growing, we could be in for a long period of decreasing crops worldwide and a loss of land that requires direct rain that otherwise might be tillable. Water reclamation projects might be the only solution worldwide to keep crop levels from dropping in droughted areas.
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