Those who have been holding and telling people not to panic are the real idiots here. Panic is the appropriate response when the global economy is collapsing. Take your money out of the market now before you lose even more. The buy and hold strategy will lead only to big losses. Guaranteed in these times. 
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*Sigh*

I hate reading posts like these.  You DO realize that you don't lose a thing unless you SELL at a price lower than which you BUY, right?  Say I purchased 10 lots SIA last week.  Lo and Behold, my shares have dropped $1 in value.  I haven't LOST anything (look up unrealized gain/loss and learn something) until I SELL the shares.  Meanwhile, SIA is paying me a 6% per share dividend, helping me to beat inflation.  WHY would I want to sell?

The DOW and STI aren't going to drop to 0, and Blue Chip companies are not going out of business any time soon.  Phase in purchase of high dividend yielding blue chips companies while the market is dropping.  Cash in on the eventual market upswing (it WILL happen) and enjoy the returns via dividends until your stocks come back.

This isn't quantum mechanics.  Would you rather have a guaranteed 6% return and possibly encounter some temporary  UNREALIZED  losses, or would you rather sell and  have actual losses while losing ground to inflation via money market or CD?

  Hey the game is called investing and the rules are buy good sound stocks low and then sell them when their  price goes above  a reasonable  good value 

  Buying really low requires going against the herd fear and selling at a reasonable price requires going against head greed. 

Holding them is made easy if they pay dividends of 3-6%.

This is a great quote!  Even Warren Buffett says that you have to swim against the current most times to make money in the market.  Our goal in life and investing is to buy low and sell high.  The stock market follows the herd mentality.  Even many mutual fund managers have been accused of following the crowd too.  When people are down on the market as a whole, it is usually the best time to buy stocks.  And, like Templeton says in the quote above, the height of the frenzy and optimism is your selling cue.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- European leaders are under intense pressure to come up with a long-term solution to the debt problems straining the European Union to its breaking point.

But given the enormous challenges involved and the unpalatable options available to them, few analysts expect EU policymakers to announce any meaningful changes soon.

" There is no solution to the Euroland's sovereign debt crisis in sight," said Carl Weinberg, an economist at High Frequency Economics. " Markets will continue to be fundamentally unstable and volatile as long as we can think."