A Dour-ing Dow
For months the stock market has resembled a smoker who knows it’s time to quit but can’t give up the weed just yet. For this smoker there’s always some occasion that seems to require one more butt. A stress situation that can only be met with a smoke. That cup of morning coffee, or the after dinner nicotine closer. Or being with someone else doing the drag you can’t watch without bumming one for yourself.
That’s the recent stock market, one in which virtually everyone in and out of this market knew was way, way overdone on the upside, but whose upside promoters wanted just a bit more squeeze before the fall, and seemed to come up with a self-serving excuse daily to prime this pump a bit further. Sure, in the real world unemployment kept rising month after month, along with more foreclosures, more food bank visitors, bigger welfare and Medicaid rolls, growing pressures on state and local government spending — and all this in spite of huge direct Federal stimulus spending and even more huge indirect infusions into the banking system.
The stock market should have been sinking gradually in sync with this ongoing torrent of bad news. But it didn’t. It didn’t because the people who manipulate it didn’t see a profit it allowing this to happen, and like that smoker who always finds an excuse for another hit, these market shapers have always found a justification for another market bump. Things are easing, these experts said. They aren’t as bad as they might have been. A few signs are appearing that might mean improvement. The bad news is just a bunch of lagging indictors.
And of course there has been the endlessly intoned word “recovery,” bandied about over and over again, ad nauseam, like a religious incantation the faithful believe can make things better through simple repetition.
Well, even a flagrantly rigged stock market eventually has to come to grips with reality. If the awful economic reports that have come along this week don’t finally pull the plug on this market bubble, something else will surely do the job soon. And then the market will likely fall in a way that exceeds even the most negative analyst expectations.
4 Responses to “A Dour-ing Dow”
Great opening paragraph!
agreed shannonlee!
dr.e
It's hard to say, Michael. For months many of us have said we can't figure what's holding up the market but the market seems to rally anyway. Remember the stock market is based on expectations, not fundamentals. The market will eventually recover regardless of who is in the White House and Congress, maybe people are trying to get in before it happens.
Rising unemployment means less people to buy products but it also means an expanded pool of applicants that will possibly work at lower salaries, and before the recession was often seen as bullish.
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