The US economy has been hit hard by rising defaults in mortgage market and I would like to think it has become special victim of any given financial crisis, but every recession becomes a global recession very quickly.  This current one caused world stock markets to take a dive, and going into 2009, it looked like everybody could use payday loans at least.  However, 2009 saw stock markets post some incredible gains.  Asian markets did better than US and European markets, but over a longer period of time, stocks are still down.  That said, now is the perfect time for investors to rebuild what they'd lost.