It's Amazing
Dear editor:
It’s amazing.
Today, May 2nd, the stock market went up again. Since mid-March the Dow has gone from a low of 11,300, to today over 13,000. And that’s just in six weeks. It forces one to ask if those who work on Wall Street live in a different universe than the rest of the country. Today was the perfect example of this absolute disconnect between “The Street” and Main Street, and proof that the stock market bears no relationship to the rest of America.
The Labor Department came out with the jobs and unemployment reports for April, neither of which was anything to celebrate. But Wall Street did. Take jobs. The so-called experts predicted that job losses for April would be 80,000 positions lost. But, the actual loss was ONLY 20,000, giving rise to happiness in the market to the fact that it was better than predicted. That’s because they were not one of the 20,000 plus who lost their jobs. As a result of this third month in a row of job losses the market opened sharply and gained 190 points in the early going. The market softened as the day progressed, but still finished in the black. Let’s all go out and celebrate ‘beating the prediction.’
And what about the unemployment rate? Washington is talking up the fact that unemployment dropped from 5.1 to 5%, which sounded wonderful to the stock market. But, let’s face it. As has been proven before, the longer jobs are cut back and work becomes harder to find, people reach the end of their unemployment benefits and fall off the charts. So what is the true unemployment figure? We’ll never know.
How can a stock market keep going up when food is being priced out of the mouths of many families, gasoline is heading towards $4.00 a gallon nationwide, people are losing their homes to foreclosure, credit has become impossible to get for many, and there are those having to choose between paying for utilities, food and gasoline and buying much needed prescriptions, which have also become impossibly priced?
Wall Street is in no way, shape or form a barometer of what the average American is facing financially today. Main Street is counting pennies and the bulls of the street are looking forward to their commissions, bonuses and rewards for the CEOs who are taking credit for their stock price rising. John Edwards was right when he said “There are two Americas.”
It truly is amazing.
It’s amazing.
Today, May 2nd, the stock market went up again. Since mid-March the Dow has gone from a low of 11,300, to today over 13,000. And that’s just in six weeks. It forces one to ask if those who work on Wall Street live in a different universe than the rest of the country. Today was the perfect example of this absolute disconnect between “The Street” and Main Street, and proof that the stock market bears no relationship to the rest of America.
The Labor Department came out with the jobs and unemployment reports for April, neither of which was anything to celebrate. But Wall Street did. Take jobs. The so-called experts predicted that job losses for April would be 80,000 positions lost. But, the actual loss was ONLY 20,000, giving rise to happiness in the market to the fact that it was better than predicted. That’s because they were not one of the 20,000 plus who lost their jobs. As a result of this third month in a row of job losses the market opened sharply and gained 190 points in the early going. The market softened as the day progressed, but still finished in the black. Let’s all go out and celebrate ‘beating the prediction.’
And what about the unemployment rate? Washington is talking up the fact that unemployment dropped from 5.1 to 5%, which sounded wonderful to the stock market. But, let’s face it. As has been proven before, the longer jobs are cut back and work becomes harder to find, people reach the end of their unemployment benefits and fall off the charts. So what is the true unemployment figure? We’ll never know.
How can a stock market keep going up when food is being priced out of the mouths of many families, gasoline is heading towards $4.00 a gallon nationwide, people are losing their homes to foreclosure, credit has become impossible to get for many, and there are those having to choose between paying for utilities, food and gasoline and buying much needed prescriptions, which have also become impossibly priced?
Wall Street is in no way, shape or form a barometer of what the average American is facing financially today. Main Street is counting pennies and the bulls of the street are looking forward to their commissions, bonuses and rewards for the CEOs who are taking credit for their stock price rising. John Edwards was right when he said “There are two Americas.”
It truly is amazing.
posted by Sam Schoolsky | 6:26 PM
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