The Stock Market is The playground for the Wealthy

The U.S. stocks are hovering near record levels, but many are struggling to break out of a narrow trading range to hit new highs. One reason: Fewer individual stocks are contributing to the rally. Funny how the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq are in lockstep with one another. Word on the street is that corporate buybacks are once again the villains in the Stock Market rising as well as BTFD'ers who still believe like the '69 N.Y. Mets and Tug McGraw. This dog and pony show has run a long time like some tired old Broadway show in New York. What we've learned is that this time is different. The Fed and Central Banks are in cahoots big time to keep easy money and liquidity intact. The corporations get the buzz that there's free money to buy back more shares and drive up their bottom line and stock price. This rinse and repeat the feedback loop can only continue so long. 80% of all stock revenues goes to 20% of the population. The average 401K for someone over 50 is $62K (for a monthly income of about $400 at an 8% rate of return). The stock market is a playground for the wealthy. Welcome to The Atlantis Report. The stock market is overvalued; it is riding on a historical tidal wave of debt and printed money. The FED is now monetizing U.S. Treasury debt to the tune of $278 billion a month so that Wall Street will be flush with cash. The number of stocks hitting 52-week highs had fallen since June—when the S&P 500 kicked off its last unbeaten run at a record. Last week, 106 firms in the index set new 52-week highs, down from 293 in mid-June. This Stock Market Rally Has Everything, Except Investors Companies keep buying vast quantities of their own shares, propelling prices higher even as pensions, mutual funds, and individuals sit on their hands. American corporations flush with cash from last year's tax cuts, and a growing economy is buying back their own shares at an extraordinary clip. They have a good reason: Buybacks allow them to return cash to shareholders, burnish critical measures of financial performance, and goose their share prices. Print another 15 Trillion and put it all it stock buybacks again, up up and away. The surge in buybacks reflects a fundamental shift in how the market is operating, cementing the position of corporations as the single largest source of demand for American stocks. The binge has helped sustain a bull market approaching its 10th birthday, even in the face of political, international, and economic uncertainty. They can print as much money as they want, to infinity. And they can use that money to buy as much stock as they want. There is no ceiling for the stock market because it's propped up by funny money. Theoretically, the Market can go arbitrarily high for as long as bankers want, but there are two main issues to this: #1- the are no greater fools; therefore, no way to extract wealth from these inflated prices. #2- consequently, it is not liquid. Therefore the first bank to panic will rip off all the rest of them. The Market can run as long as the FED and other Central Banks can print, and the accumulating inefficiencies do not entirely choke off the economy. As long as people choose to believe in the con, the Market has upside potential. Often it is their wallet that compels them to believe, regardless of what their head says. When this "market" loses its ability to control the sheeple, a new game will be introduced; depressions work really well in keeping sheeple in line, as do wars. President Trump has repeatedly said the U.S. economy under his watch has been extraordinary. His tweeted descriptors have included "BOOMING," "GREAT," "stronger than ever," and "perhaps the greatest ECONOMY and most successful first two years of any President in history." But a slew of recent data suggests the Trump economy has fared no differently than other expansions at this stage. And those same numbers indicate the president's economy may be headed toward a downturn. Trump's economy is a house of cards built on deficit spending and a tax cut for the 1%. giving corporations a massive tax cut so they can buy back stock and juice the Market is the reason the stock markets were up 31% in Trump's first two years. now that the cocaine high has worn off, it's become apparent that stock buybacks don't put more money in the hands of consumers, which is what the economy really needs. Millionaires, billionaires, and poor people all eat about the same number of calories every day. However, there are more poor people than all the millionaires and billionaires combined, and as a whole, the poor represent a larger share of GDP and potential growth of GDP than the millionaires and billionaires do. It is so easy to understand; the marginal propensity to consume is inversely proportional to the level of income in a household. The more a family will earn, the stronger will its tendency to save be. Lower-income families cannot save, and as a matter of fact, 40% of households do not have $400 in cash reserve to cover for a possible emergency. The marginal propensity to consume is exceptionally high, the lesser the income. Tax reductions are not a useful stimulus tool. In this world of nearly 0% interest on cash balances or savings, all the extra money provided on tax reductions for the wealthiest goes into speculative investments on the stock market. It does not favor savings, and it promotes more speculative activities. It is destructive in nature. Moreover, regional disparities make matters worse. A household earning more than $100,000 in a large metropolis is barely breaking even, while $50,000 in a small town USA is more than sufficient. The median income is not a significant statistical tool as $200,000 annually in San Fransisco to cite just one example is peanuts, compared to an equivalent amount in the small-town USA. Wages may be on the rise in San Fransisco but barely enough to keep pace with inflation. The point here is that productivity is down. That is obviously a better gauge with respect to economic health. If the economy is so great, there is no need for the Fed to decrease rates. That would be an artificial stimulus that would accomplish nothing in the long term; in fact, it would hurt. Trump bought himself some time by borrowing lots of money and cutting a big check to business and high-income households, but I think his policies are driving the economy into the ditch. The stock market has become the Magic Market. It hasn't followed any of the traditional elements since 2006 Looks like monetary stimulus has only amplified the extremes — inflation at one end and deflation at the other end. The system is entirely out of balance. The stock market is really wholly divorced from the real economy. The Dow can stay disconnected forever. It no longer measures business success. The Market only measures itself. A number that measures itself is free to assume any value in the number line, from negative infinity to positive infinity. The stock market is controlled by a few, with the bankers being part of the control. There are no more price/earnings or ROI anymore. It is nothing but a gambling casino controlled by a few. Wall Street exists only for Wall Street and not to help push the economy of America. The real economy has been in decline for over a decade. While the managed fraud they call a market is a fairy-tale called the land of make-believe. The illusion has become real. Total manipulation and distraction by the elite to keep their status while everything burns. Central banks have all over the world were flooding credit. For decades, if not longer. There is more credit, knee-high than customers. What were junk bonds, ugly girls, are now with excess world credit looking like beautiful models. Wall Street, like Washington, is completely disconnected from reality. They are major money-laundering centers of fraud, recycling Wahhabi dollars like a financial bordello for elites. Wall Street lives in La-La-Land. Meanwhile, in real America, life is not so rosy as Trump and his 1% club claim it's going. Everywhere you travel in America, and it's tough to find any community outside of the vicinity of Wall Street in New York City that is getting any of the benefits of the "Bull Market" you see on Wall Street. There has never been a moment like this for so many reasons, starting with the unlimited printing of currency. This economy is a game of musical chairs. There are at least two hundred participants for every chair. It is going to be quite a spectacle when the music stops. By mid-September, if not sooner, that bubble will pop, and the Bond bubble will pop quickly thereafter, and the U.S. Dollar will begin a 50% dive into the abyss of worthlessness. And when the Market goes down, it will be to strip pensions and 401K's, certainly not the one percent. The storm clouds are looming, and disaster could strike at any time. This is one of the most critical times in the history of our nation, and most Americans are completely unprepared for what is going to happen next." Yes, Yes, most Americans are never prepared for anything-what else is new? Market crashes are sure excellent for speculators, however-cheap stock, and then after a while cheap real estate. The only problem is getting that market top right; easier said than done. It's 1929 All Over Again. Household debt recently hit $13.5 trillion — up to $837 billion from 2008. Student debt hit $1.5 trillion - 40% of underemployed young people default. Obese Americans on mobility scooters purchase less junk food. The velocity of M2 Money Stock is nowhere, man. Homeless hordes and trailer park Trumpkins face a lack of sanitation. Trump's Budget Deficit is Double Obama's. all asset values are faux. At least one of the big banks is in way worse shape than they are telling us. The FED stress test was a lie. At least one of them should have failed miserably. Something is going on, and the insiders are keeping it a secret. And winter is coming. Bulldozing money to the banks did nothing but make the situation worse for every day working Americans. Prices are going up, and cars cost what houses used to cost; the home's out of reach for people not living in a lie. Let the banks burn, let regulation hit wall street, and get this chaos in order. Imprison those that would rig the system in their favor while people struggle paycheck to paycheck. Let it all fall apart so we can actually build something we can work with.








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