I wasn’t suggesting in and out trading. I’ve been in Vanguard index funds since 1999, and just liquidated my positions. I did so in anticipation of slower consumer spending, and expected a stock market crash in early summer or fall. Little did I know that today a sell-off would occur due to inflation worries. I was just lucky there, as today’s decline was not for the reason I thought.
I did not recommend taking money out of retirement funds, only moving from equities to CDs. You can do this within your retirement account. I made the same move in my non-retirement accounts too.
I wouldn’t count on international funds to save me. The Asian economies are export dependent, and until they learn to stimualte internal demand, they will fare badly when the US consumer runs out of steam. Check Richard Duncan’s (Dollar Crisis) update.