It's not a popular idea right now as pundits predict a full economic recovery. But history and current trends suggest a different possibility that investors should prepare for.

Consumer demand isn't coming back. Not anytime soon. Not for a decade or more. Not anything like the levels of 2006 or 2007, before the global economic crisis hit full force.

I know that's not the conventional wisdom right now.

You've heard the current version of history over and over. Consumers got ahead of themselves in the past few years and spent money that they didn't have by running up balances on their credit cards and treating their houses as ATMs.

The consensus opinion on Wall Street, in Washington, D.C., and on Main Street is that it will take some time, maybe as long as two...