#953 Wall Shriek

I think I may finally have a good piece of economic news. The stock market is going down. That’s right, down. Wall Street is upset with the economic recovery plan and you know what? That may actually be a good thing.
Bear with me on this as I bull through my reasoning.
For years, we’ve been told that what’s good for the stock market is good for America. But Wall Street is not Main Street. In the old days maybe. In the old days the Dow Jones industrials list was made up of, um, industries. If they were roaring along, so were American workers¾and consumers. Seems like a no brainer.
But somewhere along the way, Wall Street started figuring out ways to make money off money. It was a whole lot easier to trade credit default swaps and mortgage derivatives than it was to actually build factories. The return was faster and better. And made out of thin air.
You know, like the air on the inside of a bubble.
99 times out of a hundred, fast bull markets mean a bubble. Wall Street loves a bubble. Who wouldn’t? For a while, there’s free money. It’s the biggest Ponzi scheme of all, where all the stock marketers have made off with millions.
Wall Street isn’t much tied to the American worker anymore. Except where the American worker has a 401-K. Which most of them need these days because profit-driven CEOs stripped away pension funds.
I used to work in the investment industry. An investment analyst firm called Morningstar rates the stocks of companies. One of the negative comments they always make about a company’s health is that they have too big a pension fund burden.
Yep, that’s negative all right, taking care of your loyal workers so they’ll give you greater productivity.
You may have noticed during bull markets, if employment figures go up, stocks always go down. Funny, you’d think a fully employed productive America would be good news to Wall Street.
So all I’m saying is. Let’s not get all upset every time we hear that Wall Street is reacting negatively. Of course they are. They have had it deregulatory good for over a decade. Their swollen hand is stuck deep in the candy jar.
And it’s going to be painful pulling it out.
America, ya gotta love it.