To be honest I have no idea what to think anymore about the general economy. They claim 500 trillion in derivatives. How much money is that, probably much more than all world currencies printed combined. So it can't be the real stuff, but then again the ones sitting with the bad cards will blow up.

How can these things affect the real economy, jobs etc, I have no idea. In addition to taxes and death, we know that the future will bring changes, but for good or bad, most of these are unpredictable. 

Housing is bad, banks are uncertain, gold producers probably ok but there are large political/country risks for most majors with operations around the world, most developing mines have problems due to difficulties in financing, major oil plays may be safe but may be overpriced, playing junior exploration stocks is inherently risk, so what can we do? I don't know but sitting on cash alone is no solution either. Inflation will eat it up in a flash

Personally I am sitting mainly with major gold producers, exploration companies and cash. I would like to get back more into the energy side again but will most likely stay put for a while.