Scary that "World stocks in freefall as confidence drowns in 'bloodbath' "

"World stocks in freefall as confidence drowns in 'bloodbath'" this is the title on the NST online front page, 2008/10/10... http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Friday/Frontpage/20081010201035/Article/index_html but being the Optimist that I am ... anyone ever considered the Benefits to a Recession or Down Market? I have done some very basic research and found that during recession #1 and #2 happen 1. Undervalued stocks and bonds. 2. Falling house prices. I have been through one terrible recession in my early working life... 1997-1998 recession..I started working on 1st June 1996. I was employed at a very stable organisation. Thank God for that!! As most of my ex-college mates started work with the most computer savviest companies in the market and in the really exciting IT work , web designing, client-server application development..whilst I was in the mainframe system, which was considered those days as "Dinosaur era system"... I was actually looking for another job in web designing, but some really know-it-all person told me not to move as recession is coming.. wow they had the crystal ball I thought then, luckily I stayed with my current company then. First few stories that I heard during those days were that lot of people were already declared bancrupt ( mostly remisiers), lots of people lost business, employments lost, et ce tra. Most of them who lost their jobs, can't find jobs at any other place, some even got paid only half of their normal salaries. But I Thank God again that the only suffering I experienced was that I did not get my promotion that was promised to me that year 1998 , neither was I promoted the preceding year 1999. oww , .. small injury that.. compared to others ...... only now I realised how fortunate I was. But but but the next stories that I heard were really really fantabulous!!! A lot of financially savvy smart Alecs got "durian runtuh " during those two years! wow how di dat happen? Of course simple as 1,and 2,.. buy undervalued stocks and bonds, buy undervalued assets like houses .. So now about 10 years down the road , with me being a bit more wiser and peacefully in my early semi-retirement life as the progression of my dream life ;) , Another recession is happening .. Great!!! As the financial analyst have predicted another 10 year cycle!!! so this time armed with my newly acquired simple economic knowledge ... start doing investment gradually start with buying gold... that one is a classic :), invest in Trust funds, or n bahasa "Amanah Saham" I am not a true believer of Teories that I have yet to see with my own eyes proven and experience it myself... but found that the teories are proven and there is always opportunity to be found in any circumstances... so don't get too emotionally affected by this 10 year recession cycle phenomenon , just practice good money habits "Spend less than you earn" put away some of what you earn for the future consistently..and Take a Long Term View... As taken from http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/2008/03/17/8-benefits-to-a-recession-or-down-market/ sited on 10/10/2008. Undervalued stocks and bonds. Go for it. Yes, in general it’s bad to time the market. Yes, it’s possible stocks in general will go down more this year. But I believe that dips like the one we’re experience are perfect opportunities for long-term investors to pick some good values company by company or buy the overall market through a low-cost index fund. Falling house prices. Well, at the moment, there are more people trying to sell homes then there are buyers. This inequity between supply and demand means that in order to sell houses, prices must fall. But as there are fewer people looking to purchase than there are looking to sell, this benefits fewer people than increasing house prices. Buy gold!!!! this one is a classic.. :-)