You seem to be under the impression that I am promising a guarantee that every form of retiree investment will live up to all retiree hopes, no matter how much change happens in the political or economic systems. But even in times of peace where law is upheld, many supposedly "safe" investments will disappoint. The recent downturn is an obvious example. In such times of turmoil, even government guaranteed investments may fail. And in times of war, there are even fewer safe investments.

But this is all a pretty generic fact about the future - the more change it sees, the more at risk are individual investments. If change speeds up, then the realization of this risk speeds up. There really isn't a realistic alternative -- all of this applies no matter what kids of big changes are coming.