This has been a historic year for all the wrong reasons. The bond market has delivered its worst year on record, the S&P 500 produced its worst first-half return in 52 years, and the nation's central bank is aggressively raising interest rates as the stock market plunges. There simply haven't been many safe havens for investors.

Yet in spite of these challenges, most Wall Street analysts maintain an optimistic tone. The reason being that recessions and bear markets tend to be short-lived. With the major U.S. indexes eventually erasing corrections, crashes, and bear markets over time, it generally pays to be an optimist.

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Source Fool.com