I tip my hat to Mr Bernanke for removing so many risks associated with buying equities, with the VIX reaching an intraday low of 11.87 today. Looking back at a longer-term chart, it looks like the last time the VIX was below 12.00 was on 26 February 2007, the day before the 27 February 2007 plunge in equities. http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1845523_1845619_1845561,00.html "416 points (3.3%) On Feb. 27, 2007, slumping Chinese stocks, fears over the domestic market's steadiness and what appeared to be a Taliban assassination attempt on Vice President Dick Cheney during his visit to Afghanistan sent the market into its biggest tailspin since it reopened after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks." http://money.cnn.com/2007/02/27/markets/markets_0630/index.htm "Dow tumbles 416, biggest one-day point loss since 2001, as investors eye China, drop in durable orders."
There's a difference between looking at a date when it was "the last time the VIX was below 12" and, more practically, "the last time the VIX went below 12". Around 6 or 7 years ago, the VIX was below 11 for months, and that was with the market lower than it is now. VIX has room to go lower and the market has room to go much higher.
check out this post from vix and more blog that does a great job explaining the low print monday. i agree that the vix can stay low for low periods of time but at the same time i think it's a great time to buy puts b/c the vix has fallen so far so fast (from 19.5 to under 11.5 in less than a month). http://vixandmore.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-vix-interpolation-and-roll.html