Don’t Wonder When People Pack Up and Leave

Jason Kelly is pointing out a psychological effect that this stock market crash and the political reaction to it is causing in the long run. Read the full article here.

It’s possible that stocks will not be worth their trouble for another many years. We could already be in a range that holds for so long that people simply move beyond stocks as a place they consider storing their money. The stock market could become a distant report for specialists only, much the way most people view esoteric investments like cattle futures. How much does the cattle report factor into the lives of most people you know?

You have every right to be angry. This is the biggest failure of American leadership we’ve seen in our lifetimes, though few see it that way yet. This is the culmination of a growing corporate ownership of America that began after World War II and spun out of control. About one-third of US tax revenues go toward a defense establishment strong enough to wipe out the Third Reich, but impotent against a bunch of box-cutter-carrying terrorists from our oil ally, Saudi Arabia. Our response? Launch an unrelated war in Iraq that’s slated to cost $3 trillion before it winds down — and it won’t wind down until the new war in Afghanistan ramps up.

This is not a political discussion, it’s an economic discussion. Notice how much of the opposition to health care reform has centered around the inability of the country to afford it. Why is there never such consideration for military expenditures? It’s the same Treasury paying, and the same Treasury paying off banksters, too. There’s an endless supply of money for meaningless wars and bank heists, but not enough for health care. You know how much the proposed health care reform would cost? About $100 billion per year for ten years. You know how much Paulson’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) cost? $700 billion. Poof! Just like that, the banks got the dough. For health care’s smaller cost, angry mobs turned up at town hall meetings to scream “socialism” at the very idea.

Category: Stock Market