...I am becoming increasingly frustrated with the MSM's conflation of the level of the stock market and the overall health of the economy. Using stock indexes to evaluate the economy is the economic equivalent of "wrong tool, for the wrong job", it doesn't really fit. The stock market indexes are designed to measure the overall profitability/viability of a company(and that is in a vacuum). And as we have all learned over the past year and a half, what is good for a company is not necessarily good for the economy.
Companies routinely take part in things that are bad for the economy and are routinely rewarded for their actions by the stock market. Things like:
-Outsourcing jobs
-Cutting wages/benefits
-Collusion
-Implementing fairytale accounting
-Laying off workers
-Ponsi/Pyramid schemes
This is now the norm for how a company should increase their "bottom lines" and subsequently inflate their stock prices. My question is which one of these would lead you to believe that the economy was healthy?
The stock market has never been a good indicator of economic health, in fact over the past 30 years it has been the complete opposite! The economic "Harbinger of Death", a reflection of the so-called "race to the bottom line"! Coincidentally this coincides with the rise of uber-massive, multinational, conglomerate that happens to be too big to fail. If we insist on using stock indexes in this fashion we must completely overall our regulatory system and metrics of measurement.
A) Mandate that CEO pay must be approved by a simple majority of shareholders.
B) "PROTECTIONISM, PROTECTIONISM, PROTECTIONISM!!!" Bring back tariff and stop allowing the wholesale outsourcing of the middle class.
C) Federalize the "FED"!
D) Bring back the pre-Reagan measurement of unemployment.
F) Resuscitate the union movement.
In this era of the multinational conglomerates, companies find it easier to eviscerate an economy and make ungodly sums of money in the process, than come up with a single new useful idea or product. And if that is how we measure our prosperity, then we are all in some DEEP trouble!