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Why is the stock market rallying when the economy is so bad?

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601–610 of 898 posts

Re: Why is the stock market rallying when the economy is so bad?

#601

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the Fed isn't there all the time. Under normal circumstances, you can't just sit there. Aside from competition, you won't retain quality employees.

But they are now, and that's what matters. When prices fell the first time, it didn't even take a week before the government passed the largest stimulus ever, 80% of which went to corporations. Investors know that the government will do anything to underwrite their risk.

> Investors know that the government will do anything to underwrite their risk.

The FED only steps in for once in a lifetime risks that impacts the market broadly. Any risk specific to individual firms, which is all the risk between these broad market events.

Re: Why is the stock market rallying when the economy is so bad?

#602

> And as has often been the case in recent years, investors find themselves faced with few attractive alternatives if they opt out of betting on stocks. The problem is so familiar it has its own acronym: TINA, or There Is No Alternative to stocks. Cash: Gets eaten away by inflation. Although the CPI doesn't indicate high inflation it only measures consumer goods. Inflation is there in the price of investments. If you…

I'm surprised the average Americans (the 90%) don't get that they are providing insurance to the 86% wealth of the top 10%, but get almost none of the gains.

Where are you pulling 90% from?

The top 50% pay 97% of taxes. That means 97% of the insurance is being paid by 50%. The top 10% paid 70% of taxes.

Re: Why is the stock market rallying when the economy is so bad?

#603

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest tax advantages for investing go to the rich, who can arrange their businesses and finances to max out retirement accounts, and very highly paid professional with fat 401k matches. No matter how someone with a normal salary and a 2% match tries they cannot get anywhere near maxing out a 401k, due to how they’re structured (over 50% of the max can only come from an employer, and the employee can’t make that…

"Rich" typically do not care about their retirement accounts and do not have an employer. They typically benefit from owning a business, having a stream of passive investments and compounding growth. But this may depend on your definition of rich.

It’s my understanding that one can arrange for oneself (and family members) to be employed by one’s businesses such that 401ks are maxed out. This can amount to a huge de jure employment benefit but a de facto slow-motion tax-advantaged inheritance over, say, 20 or 30 years. Just live off trust assets and the rest of your wages (or whatever) until you can draw on retirement.

Though yes it’s probably too small-potatoes for the rich rich to bother with. Mere tens-of-millions business owners are more the audience for that maneuver. Like everything else it seems one is likely to be smacked down for attempting to use it while not-rich (need enough legitimate business activity to make the wages to relatives plausible)

Re: Why is the stock market rallying when the economy is so bad?

#605

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like Sanders says, when half a million people are homeless, our healthcare system is a joke, and our infrastructure is unmaintained, we have a LOT of work to do. And a lot of spending. There is a far-left opinion that there should be no such thing as a billionaire, that a single human's marginal tax rate should hit 100% at some point. I wouldn't say "never" to the idea at this point.

> our infrastructure is unmaintained Bernie supporters are generally the least likely to get their hands dirty and do the kind of work necessary to build and maintain infrastructure. Pretty much everyone I meet that does that kind of work is Republican. Not saying this is a universal truth, but it's a somewhat accurate generalization. Source for party affiliation by a sampling of occupations: http://verdantlabs.com/p…

I don't respect your assertion. Not a lot of work to do when it's unfunded.

Also looking through your other comments, you seem to question peoples' sources on things without providing any for your own.

For posterity, the link was added after I commented and he probably downvoted me.

Re: Why is the stock market rallying when the economy is so bad?

#606

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised the average Americans (the 90%) don't get that they are providing insurance to the 86% wealth of the top 10%, but get almost none of the gains.

Scream this from the rooftops.

https://www.amazon.com/Creature-Jekyll-Island-Federal-Reserv...

To all the economists that like to pontificate on the market structure / monetary policy and what not on this site, feel free to read a book about the history of the federal reserve. It also covers the theory of money thru out the ages.

No mater what side you are on this will provide a detailed history of Congress, Federal Reserve, politics and the politics of monetary policy.

"Knowing is half the battle" G.I. Joe

Re: Why is the stock market rallying when the economy is so bad?

#607
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. Also, I know it is hip to say that Wall Street is short-sighted, but in reality it is one of the the few fields where people routinely think decades at a time. If you run a large pension fund or investment account you were already risk-weighted and if the cash isn't needed for 10+ years you'd much rather own a slice of the world's largest companies ten years from now instead of gold or cash under a mattress.

I feel like there is a decade of guillotines in the future that they are either not seeing or are looking way past. But then I've always been cynical about the growing divide between the uber-wealthy and the other 99% of this country.

I don't see how they would help. There's a common refrain among Reddit socialists and whatnot about the rich sitting on some mythical "pile of resources" that needs to be redistributed, but even if you suppose that we guillotine the rich I don't think the poor can eat stock certificates.

What are they going to do if they dismantle, say, Wal-Mart? Now all the people who worked there have no jobs and the people who shopped there have one less source of goods. Sure, we might be fine without it due to the alternatives, but once you go down that road, you find out that you've ripped up a complex system of logistics that moved goods to places that people wanted them and that you don't have any sort of replacement planned.

But that's usually what happens in these revolutions, they rip everything apart and then try to replace it with something better and fail. But next time will always be better, right?

Re: Why is the stock market rallying when the economy is so bad?

#608

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Missiles are similar weapons may be useful against other countries (remember Vietnam, however), but they will not stop revolts inside the country itself. What would the US government do if 80% of the city of New York decided to turn against the government? Throw an atomic bomb in the city? Their time may be running out.

What would New York even do? People here don't believe in firearms, let alone violence. In reality the city would starve within a couple weeks due to siege/blockades if it really united and tried to revolt.

> People here don't believe in firearms,

I don't know what that means. Guns are highly correlated with leathality and people believe in them completely. Generally, a population may not want to have possession of guns. That quickly changes for a large percentage in survival mode. Effectively, many criminals are perpetually in survival mode.

Re: Why is the stock market rallying when the economy is so bad?

#609
post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think a typical middle class American would rather be living in the world as it was 40 years ago though? Or today's world, full of technology and infrastructure that was funded by the rich?

what technology and infrastructure was funded by the rich? I think you mean funded by the tax payer, rich and poor alike, but the poor pay a higher percentage of income in tax.

> I think you mean funded by the tax payer, rich and poor alike

The rich pay disproportionately a lot more. Most technology is funded by the rich either directly or through the majority of the taxes they pay.

97% of taxes are paid by the top 50%.

Re: Why is the stock market rallying when the economy is so bad?

#610

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get rid of the wealthy and enjoy becoming another Venezuela!

While you're not really wrong in your assessment, please take the time to post a more substantive, less flamebaity comment.

Get rid of the wealthy and enjoy becoming the USSR?
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