I concur. Even though stocks are said to be driven by earnings -- which are  reported as 1/4 of what they were last year -- it is the masses that bring their money in. When folks need money -- and they will need it to survive -- they will liquidate their assets. Foreclosures, job losses, the drop of standard of living will take their toll. those are involuntary actions, and they will be taken despite the best assurences to the contrary. We haven't seen forced bankruptcies yet, which happened in 1930s; extreme risk aversion for investing, which normal mark market bottoms.

In short, I would ignore what Americans say and will see what they are up to in the not so distant future. And don't forget that foreigners who hold US dollars, don't keep them in the banks. When they decide to call it quits -- and they will after $US drops enough -- there will be nothing to prop up stock prices.

During the 1930s the only category of stocks that went up were mining stocks

http://www.kitcocasey.com/articles/2771/gold-stocks-in-a-depression/

They went up 4 or 5 times from their 1930 prices. If you understand everything about how depressions work, you should be able to explain how on earth that could have happened.

Chris Laird once said that one could buy a house for 10 ounces of gold then. I am waiting to see this happen again.