There are an increasing number of experts who are insisting that the mess in the mortgage and credit markets may take a long time to unwind. Some are comparing the current crisis to the S&L crisis in the 90's that caused major problems and made loans hard to obtain for several years. However, let's not forget that the same problems back then offered enormous opportunities for investors - particularly, those like Sam Zell who invested in real estate while prices were low and made a fortune. His Equity Home and Equity Office companies are worth billions now and built primarily during the extended downcycle seem back then.

From the LATimes:
“ 'I look at this sort of like 1990 and 1991,' he said, referring to the savings-and-loan crisis. 'Against that background you had a $7 trillion economy that gave birth to the $300 billion Resolution Trust Corp. Now we have an $11 trillion economy and we’ve already seen $2 trillion of market capitalization going away' before many loans in the pools have actually defaulted, he said. "What about the people who argue that the impact of the mortgage mess will be muted because risks have been spread well beyond the banks and into many parts of the financial world? Mr. Farrell takes the opposite view. Spreading the risk beyond the banking system will make the task of fixing the mess much harder. “ 'Even if the Fed eases, it is probably not going to help the housing market,' he said. 'This repair cycle is going to take a lot longer because it is not concentrated in the banking system like it was in the 1990s. Back then, they could repair the banking system by dropping interest rates. Now they can’t bail out rich hedge fund guys in Greenwich.' "