nadorenter, some very smart people are bearish on stocks. Yamamoto Forecast, Barry at TheBigPicture, Bill Fleckenstein.
If you want to see what happens when the consumer stops spending, read the very data-heavy (Federal Reserve and IMF data) Dollar Crisis, written by a former consultant to the IMF.
Also read Ahead of the Curve, from Goldman Sachs analysist Joseph Ellis. He was the #1 retail analyst for 18 years in a row. See aheadofthecurve-thebook.com, for updated charts, and you can see graphically why we are heading into a recession.
Also read iTulip.com, run by a venture capitalist who warned about internet stock bubbles in 1999. All 3 of these guys are brilliant, and all are warning of a recession, based on the excesses of the government deficit and housing bubble.
Read my favorite realtor, Bob Casagrand’s web site. He has the best data on real estate in San Diego. I don’t remember his web address, so you can google him. He tells you what’s going on now in the market, how sales are down, etc.
Read the bubble bloggers, esp. Calculated Risk for the MEW information. Read my analysis of the UCLA Anderson report, from a few weeks ago. Read Part 1, where I dismiss their report for their faulty and weak analysis, and why we are going into a recession.
Tell you husband, that 70% of the US GDP is from consumer spending, and with flat wages and high inflation, consumer spending is due solely to MEW (mortgage equity withdrawal). We don’t even need prices to go down for that gig to stop. Even flat housing prices will eliminate the MEW.
Here’s another book: Sell Now by John Talbott.
I sold my house, I cashed out, and I moved all mutual fund and stock and index fund money to cash. My house proceeds are in cash.
I use about 10% of my cash to dabble in stocks, based on the info in the Zeal newsletter. Several of us on this site subscribe to Zeal, and they are very good.
If your husband loves devouring economic and stock stuff, he will like the brilliance and clear thinking of the resources I cited here. Good luck. We cashed out our index funds just a couple weeks before the sell-off in May.