In his first inaugural address, at the height of the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt told Americans, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

In a recent speech, President Obama took a different approach and told the country, "There's a sense possibly that the world is spinning so fast and nobody is able to control it."

With nobody able to control events, the natural reaction is fear and in the past week, we have seen fear take hold of the stock market and country's medical system as Ebola was allowed to "paralyze needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

Ebola is not an investment theme except for a few speculators. But it is helping to clarify the investment environment. Investors and citizens of the U.S. are worried about the next crisis. Many live in fear waiting for the next financial crisis, the next terrorist attack, the next incurable pandemic disease. They fear the government will be unable to limit the impact of the crisis and the results will be devastating.

When Roosevelt took action, the stock market bottomed and confidence in the economy grew. His plan was not perfect and unemployment remained high until the war put America back to work. But Roosevelt laid the groundwork for a confident America to lead the world out of World War II.

Are Americans poised to lead the world under Obama? No, the world is spinning too fast for him to develop a plan. That means the next financial crisis will be severe because no one is prepared to stop it.

For investors, this means if the major market averages sell off by 20 percent and enter a bear market, it is time to be defensive. This next bear market is likely to last at least a year until leadership emerges from somewhere to reverse the sense of fear that grips everyday life. Only when Americans are confident will the next bull market begin.