Those millions of Main Street folks who tried to tell Washington not to undertake the $700 billion bailout are looking smarter by the minute.

But being right doesn’t make things any better.

Things have only gotten worse since the bill was signed into law. It will be a long and painful road to recovery.

Some of the most discouraged are recent and soon-to-be retirees who have seen the bottom fall out of many investments and found no safety in diversification. Their dreams have been mostly scrambled.

Retirement accounts had shed $2 trillion in asset...