What’s ahead? A “Lost Couple of Decades… ” says Comstock partners.

Or you could take heed of Bill Clinton’s former labor secretary Robert Reich. He reckons we’re not in for a “U” or a “V” or an “L” shaped recovery but an “X”. This from underground investor Jon Herring, writing for Investor’s Daily Edge:

Consumer deleveraging has barely even started, says Payout Trader editor and Crisis Strategy Alert senior analyst Charles Delvalle.

Consumers are feeling poorer, saving more and spending less. With the exception of refinancing their homes, they’re also borrowing less.

The week begins with a bang, according to the Financial Times. The FT reports that, “The Obama administration is gearing up for a ‘big bang’ announcement within the next two weeks that will combine a bank clean-up with measures to reduce home foreclosures and probably steps to kick-start credit markets.”

Yesterday, I left you with the thought that the London traders had been buying dollars since they arrived back from their three-day Holiday weekend. The U.S. traders did the same… And I believe profit taking was the order of the day.

“Total debt everywhere, like Old Man River, just keeps rolling along, like a snowball rolling downhill, getting bigger and bigger, which is such a strange mix of metaphors that I realize that I am completely confused and frightened.”