I argue that price/profit manipulation of stocks are a large part of what’s driving crises issues. Those manipulations are not created by the average investor, who doesn’t hold enough financial power to cause huge shifts, but by wealthier investors, who do. Hope and marketable shifts in public attitudes are talked up by brokers and media shows to create investment in stocks which then rise. Then comes a manufactured “crises” which will, predictably, cause uncertainty. The wealthy investors, who filled their portfolios at lower prices, now sell those shares and the average investors, who were only able to buy as the stock was rising, are put on an unavoidably losing trajectory. At best one can only hope to tread water by having bought a valuable stock early enough that it’s basic price can’t fall much lower than what it was purchased for. That can only be done by choosing established companies with high budgets that are integral to societal needs.
So the Fiscal Cliff “crises” is an obvious con by wealthy investors designed to take invested 401K money away from workers and put it back into the Plutocrat’s pockets. It’s a shell game which workers are basically forced into playing by the creation of 401K matches heralded as “raises in pay.” Even investing all 401K money in Market Funds is not safe as those can become playable if Stock Funds are insufficient to cover sell-offs. That means the Plutocrats who run the companies can’t lose while the worker can’t win.
It is VERY IMPORTANT to see these politically manufactured market “crisisses” for what they are; expedient tools for creating uncertainty which provides the trigger for market manipulation and subsequent recapitalization of Plutocrat’s funds. One way to stop it is demand for legislation that ties an employer’s pay-raise DIRECTLY to our pay, not our 401K’s, and retirement accounts that actually reward funding. I would argue that profit sharing should also be mandated as a way to achieve fair and integrated pay-raises with company success. This is basically what CEO’s are getting but without the necessity for the company to be successful (I'm looking at you, Hostess).