Market sentiment seems to be favoring the bears again. My cursory research indicates that 65% of investors are again thinking about an impending decline while the other 35% are still cautiously optimistic. It's only seldom in these last few weeks that I came across the occasional person who insists that the bull charge, which began in 2002, shows no signs of relenting. Just the fact that there has been a noticeable increase in the past few weeks (even before these past few days of declines) in the volume of discussions and analysis regarding how to recognize a bear market is coming, how to prepare for it's arrival and what to do when it gets here, signals to me that investors are getting skittish. The funny thing is that it's almost a universally accepted fact that no one can truly predict a bear market turn.

I gave a warning a couple weeks prior to the last contraction that I thought one was coming. That quick downward slide in fact happened. I'm now going on record again as declaring that the bear is coming for another swipe. I expect that this time the cut will go deeper and bleed a bit longer. (Indeed, I originally wrote this post after Tuesday's sell-off, but already this downturn is longer and deeper than the last). Last time around, I sent you that message based solely on gut instinct with little else to back it up. This time, however, I'll clue you in to some of my thinking.

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) floats around in a cloud of the rarefied air that is happy employees. Or so it seems if you gulp down the Frappuccino Kool-Aid, slurping up the frequent mentions in Fortune's "100 Top Employers" list, the formal name of "partners" instead of employees, the stock options, the good benefits, the repeated comments about raises in earnings calls and shareholder meetings. Yep, if you do nothing but lick up the PR, you must realize that Starbucks' workers -- err, partners -- are the happiest on every block.

Or are they? Not according to Daniel Gross, former partner at New York's Madison Avenue and 36th Street store, and the other members of the Starbucks Workers Union he helped organize. While their numbers must be small; the SWU only represents partners at nine of the company's 9,401 U.S. stores; their complaints are multitudinous. Two of the union's members, including Gross, were fired unfairly, they say. Starbucks has been cited by the National Labor Relations Board for breaking the law 30 times by pressuring union members. What's more, Starbucks partners aren't paid highly enough; the 'flexible hours' are too flexible and result in an always-uncertain schedule (yikes! I've never heard of food service organization with oft-changing schedules! oh, wait...); and the benefits aren't used by the majority of Starbucks partners (which Gross & company complain is because Starbucks limits its employees hours; Starbucks claims it's because so many of their employees have other coverage).

Not only that, there's the iced tea gestapo.