The Bubble Society

Understand that Americans, forever eschewing hard work and increases in efficiency and productivity, have become progressively more and more reliant upon bubbles to help sustain their standards of living. The Dotcom bubble was one such perfect example where it triggered such economic (albeit unsustainable) economic growth that social security was (foolishly) projected to have a surplus and the federal budget was actually running a surplus. Or the housing bubble where people relied on increasing home values to magically afford them a new SUV without any additional increase in work.

But the biggest bubble, and one that has yet to deflate fully, is the retirement bubble. Yes, tens of billions of dollars flooding religiously and regularly every month into the stock market because the federal government has just magically decided that stocks and mutual funds are now the defacto retirement vehicle for the masses. And with tax benefits granted via the 401k/IRA/403b and other plans, how can you not throw your money into the stock market?

Regardless, this behavior engrains in the American psychology that rising asset prices HAS to occur simply because we've invested so much in it. That Barack Obama CANNOT fail because we've put our hearts and souls into it. Or (on the other side of the political isle) America CANNOT fail because it's America and Americans are great because Sean Hannity told me so, tee-hee, I want an SUV and a rich husband, tee-hee! It is a religious belief rather than a calculated financial investment that drives market sentiment and thus why you have this;



Oh, yeah, THAT'S reassuring;

"America is still getting sucky, we're just getting suckier at a slightly less sucky rate."

And how does the market respond to this?

Up 2% I last saw today.

Oh yeah, like the market just isn't looking for ANY reason for prices to go up.

C-R-I-P-E-S