Stock market vs. real economy

I note a dichotomy in the state of the economy – and it’s becoming more apparent! A few months ago, it was all about the falling stock market and the “insiders” who brought it all about. Today, however, it’s about the “real” economy – increasing job losses and the drop in consumer spending. After all, the prudent worker simply does not buy a new car, new house, new TV when his very livelihood is threatened. Rather, he “battens down the hatches” and prays that he won’t lose his job, his healthcare, his home and the education he’s planned for his kids!

Frankly, the working people I know are not really involved in the stock market (other than their 401Ks) but are deeply concerned about their job future and their healthcare. The “stock market” mostly concerns the “well-to-do,” the retirees who augment their pensions with dividend checks and the whole fiscal industry that has grown up around Wall Street. I don’t accept the philosophy of those who are indifferent to the younger Americans who have been lived off of (e.g. 20,000 at Caterpillar) just so long as these layoffs improved the stocks in their portfolio!

Robert F. Green