Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Who cares what YOU say?

Not every post is going to have the kind of polish on it I'd like. Sometimes I just shoot from the hip.

Dear Everyone:

Who cares what the stock market did today? I mean, as far as whether the stock market "likes" a policy or little bit of news. Obviously, the investors care, but for the vast majority of the rest of us, the stock market not liking something is not news.

Its all bull-pucky. It always has been. Of course the stock market is going to react badly to proposed investing reform... Does the stock market not liking the reforms mean that:

  • a) we shouldn't have reforms?
  • b) the reforms are a bad idea?
  • c) the stock market wants to keep making money and doesn't want people to see how much or... how it makes money?
For those of you who actually work in stocks and finance, the answer is "c." And this kind of crap happens with... everything. "Investors got skittish yesterday when the president suggested improving auto emission standards." "The Dow Jones tumbled this morning when the Sheriff of Nottingham said he'd like people to stop robbing widows on street corners." "The stock market tanked today when someone somewhere suggested we stop eating babies."

Who fucking cares? The stock market goes UP when the powers that be talk about any form or deregulation, war, and cutting taxes. It goes DOWN when they talk about ANYTHING that's actually good for us. (We can debate whether cutting taxes are good in a later discussion.) Where's the news?

If we all decided, today, that from now on all cars had to use a certain fuel... should we really give a crap if NASCAR drivers complained that the fuel didn't give them the same horsepower? No. We'd tell them to shut the heck up. They can still drive their engines and make their money, we're just asking them to do it in a way not as detrimental to the rest of us. (Note to financiers: this is a blatant metaphor for your stock market!)

The market, like every other business, or more specifically, like every other CORRUPT and evil business, only cares about itself; perpetuating and enriching itself at the expense of the rest of us. So when, five times a day, I hear that "the market reacted badly to..." or "investors are uncertain about" I want to shout at the radio, or the TV, or the internet "TOUGH SHIT- its NOT NEWS!!"

Having spent my entire life at the feeding end of capitalism (a phrase readers of this blog are going to have to get used to), I can tell you that I'm pretty sure the entire concept of a stock market ought to be rethought. Or abolished. But that will be a subject for another blog.

In short, please stop thinking that the stock market's opinion of anything should in any wat influence anything at all. Its all a bunch of bullshit.

1 comment:

Scoopernicus said...

This is part of the problem I have with Geitner running the treasurey department. He is a financial sector in sider, and he confuses bailing out the industry with bailing out the people who got us into the mess.

Nationalizing the banks would 'hurt' the insiders so the government refuses to consider this option though it might help 'the industry'.

I'll admit there's a lot I don't under stand about finances, but I do understand populist rage. Too bad the insiders don't. Or don't care.