Further to the OP's point in starting the thread, none of us knows the economic future, and we've also proven our ability to predict presidential elections is not very good either (ha!)
The old wisdom was:
"Buy when there is blood in the streets." (when everyone else is jumping out windows because the market is dropping.)
Sell when everyone is predicting there is no end in site for the rising market.
IMO, it is nice to have some commodities, like gold, silver or platinum. Not contracts, but actual physical metal you can keep in a safe. Now they are a bit high priced. Compared to when some of mine was purchased for less than $10 an ounce.
BTW, an ounce of gold or silver weighs more than an ounce of sugar. A pound of sugar weighs more than a pound of gold or silver. Sounds weird but it is true.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)