[ I first noticed during the 1980s bank mergers that the stock market went up every time blocks of workers were laid-off (instead of when companies made a profit.)
Ah-oh, something had gone wrong. Stocks used to go down because everyone knew jobless workers was bad in the long run. ]
When the purpose of the stock market changed from being a tool for companies to raise capital for long term projects and their own company infrastructure investment while rewarding wise long term business decisions and instead turned into a short term gain casino game is when the Stock Market as a concept jumped the shark.
Companies become traded companies these days to MAKE MONEY ON THE STOCK MARKET ITSELF, not their own MERIT....
Companies used to become Publicly traded in order to raise capital to EXPAND.... in the gold olde days...
And the government insured mortgage programs were supposed to be a means to transfer capital from wealthy banks back east to the growing states so local banks could serve their local communities with home ownership.