[palmer]

Interesting that the comments are so universally negative. A lot of that comes from the fact that the obama mission is to socialize large parts of the economy. On the other hand, the Fed and Treasury are pumping carry trade money into the banks like there's no tomorrow. Starting in January some parts of the world went along with the plan (e.g. Australia raising rates while we kept ours low). Bottom line: free money for banks.

What some people may be missing is that this sort of manipulation of the economy will boost it in the short run (while undermining it in the long run). People who are negative for the long run are correct. People who are negative now are probably correct unless they are big bankers. But the next few years will probably be a lot better than most people here think because socialist democrats and higher markets are not incompatible. Likewise profits from carry trade and inflationary booms go hand in hand. Of course both socialism and inflation destroy the economy in the long run.

[Woebama]

Good post. I hear what you are saying. But most of the country pays fees to banks and interest. We don’t make money from them and we are not better off. And yes, stock ownership is high in terms of percentages — but the average amount owned won’t get you through the year is my bet (I did a quick search but couldn’t find the figure), I bet much less a house or retirement — so the mass of people won’t be helped in any big way by rising stock market.