Robert Reich: Why The Dow Is Hitting 10,000 As Regular Folks Lose Their Jobs

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Great post by Robert Reich on what’s going on:

So how can the Dow Jones Industrial Average be flirting with 10,000 when consumers, who make up 70 percent of the economy, have had to cut way back on buying because they have no money?  Jobs continue to disappear.  One out of six Americans is either unemployed or underemployed.  Homes can no longer function as piggy banks because they’re worth almost a third less than they were two years ago.  And for the first time in more than a decade, Americans are now having to pay down their debts and start to save.

Even more curious, how can the Dow be so far up when every business and Wall Street executive I come across tells me government is crushing the economy with its huge deficits, and its supposed “takeover” of health care, autos, housing, energy, and finance?  Their anguished cries of “socialism” are almost drowning out all their cheering over the surging Dow.

The explanation is simple.  The great consumer retreat from the market is being offset by government’s advance into the market.  Consumer debt is way down from its peak in 2006; government debt is way up.  Consumer spending is down, government spending is up.  Why have new housing starts begun? Because the Fed is buying up Fannie and Freddie’s paper, and government-owned Fannie and Freddie are now just about the only mortgage games remaining in play.

“Why the Dow is Hitting 10,000 Even When Consumers Can’t Buy And Business Cries ‘Socialism'”, Robert Reich, September 22 (via Mish)

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