Matt Krantz of USA Today paints a bleak and mind-boggling picture of the disaster that is the current bear market. He touches on all the ways investors have been burned, from oil's collapse to the slide of gold, which was once considered a safe harbor.

"This bear has trashed nearly every investment strategy and asset class," he writes. "It has humbled some of the most powerful names in the stock market and blown holes through long-held tenets in investing. Market historians strain to think of previous bear markets that have disproved so many investing philosophies at the same time."

It's a depressing read. The market has dragged down even the country's most respected investors, including Warren Buffett and mutual fund manager Bill Miller, Krantz writes. Even investors who saw this bear coming and switched to commodities or foreign currencies have been hurt.

Even safe stocks, like the ones in the iShares Russell 1000 exchange traded fund, are down big. Same with foreign stocks, such as the ones tracked by the iShares MSCI EAFE index fund. Emerging markets stocks might even be worse at this point.

Every major nation's stock market is down this year.

Does Krantz give us anything to hang our hopes on? Some bit of sunshine to head into the weekend with? Nope.

"Overall, investors are finding that if this bear hasn't sniffed them out yet, it's only a matter of time. 'By the time the end of a bear like this comes along, even the patient investors have to look stupid,' says Rod Smyth of Riverfront Investment. 'Anybody trying to step in front of this will be made to look very, very foolish.'"

Thanks, Matt. I'll be hiding under the bed if anyone asks.




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