I've been thinking this too

As we head into a world wide depression I'm asking myself what was the best thing to have done with the money we did have, in the last ten or twenty years? In an inflationary cycle, or a world wide depression, none of the "things" you bought, in which you "stored" value hold their value. But the experiences you bought--the places you travelled, the people you met, the courses you took, the theater you saw--they appreciate in value and the money that they once cost? seems irrelevant.

Over at the pajamapundit, they point this out in a different way:

Pajama Reader Rebecca writes in with a few economy jokes. My favorite:

If you had purchased $1,000 of Delta Air Lines stock one year ago, you would have $49 left.

With Fannie Mae, you would have $2.50 left of the original $1,000.

With AIG, you would have less than $15 left.

But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drunk all of the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling

REFUND, you would have $214 cash.

Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle.

Bottoms up.