Mar 1, 2009 12:00 PM

, By Jon Ruff & Vincent L. Childers

By Jon Ruff & Vincent L. Childers

One of investors' greatest fears today is that the world is on the edge of an economic downturn that may be deeper and longer than anything experienced in modern times.

Spurring this concern is a prolonged liquidity crisis that has affected virtually every corner of the global financial system. Lenders have tightened the spigots of credit to a trickle, while individuals and businesses are loath to spend or to take risks. In this environment, doomsday scenarios continue to proliferate: a wide-ranging and catastrophic “unwind,” or deleveraging; a further stock market collapse; or, at best, a global economy that limps along, if not in outright depression, then in a long and bitter recession, perhaps resembling Japan's “lost decade.”