I think Nathan Birch hit the nail on the head, regardless of what occurs in the future smart investors will guard them selves against potential downfalls but also take full advantage of opportunities that become available.

There are always opportunities lurking, how do some investors no matter what the economic climate seem to always make money?

What if I was to go as far as saying that the GFC has created some extremely viable investment opportunities, opportunities that wouldn't be there if there hadn't been a GFC?

I think that more experienced investors need to be careful when voicing their opinion on such a public avenue, especially when predicting such dire times (like in the first post). One must remember that there are a lot of in-experienced readers out there and when you paint, what I saw as a "MAD MAX" type scenario a lot of these potential investors will run screaming to the hills. Now this applies to both sides of the equation, or like someone advising that any property investment is a good one, when its clearly not.

At the end of the day we make the best with what we have, investing is no different. All the climate does is dictate what opprtunites are better then others. Take the US property price crash, does this mean there is no good investments in the US property market? Do 20% yield returns sound bad?

Always hedge your risk, but never give up there are always good investments out there. BE SMART!