Lest you think I'm beating up government workers here, let me assure you that those in the private sector are just as fallible. This means that investors were withdrawing money from stock funds faster than they were putting it in, something that hasn't happened in eight years. In other words, investors didn't start putting money back into stock funds until the funds had already recovered from their losses. Ordinary folks and government workers displayed equal stupidity. And people wonder why they never make any money from their investments.
Past performance is no indication of future results.
Any assertion to the contrary is a federal offense. Yet investors insist on ignoring this point. If you are unwilling to do that, don't own them at all. They made more money.