Amid last night's staggering 7.3% drop in Japan's market, the Nikkei in only one trading day and the fact it Should have pulled this market down with it, a small group of us were sitting around trying to analyze it.
One astute colleague summarized it so succinctly:
"We are living through a 'Weekend at Bernies' economy.
For those not familiar with the 1980s film, the basic plot involved two losers who make a serious financial error while working for Bernie. He pretends to be thrilled and invites them over to his beach house for the weekend but in reality is going to have them killed.
What ends up happening is Bernie himself is killed due to a Mafia hit because he's having an affair with the mob boss' wife.
OK, now the plot itself is irrelevant to what we're referring to.. That was just provided to familiarize those who may not quite have remembered this comedy.
Here's the relevant part: These two losers take this dead guy Bernie; this motionless corpse and keep him 'alive' for the weekend.
So Bernie is propped up, carted around.. Everyone who interacts with Bernie is so deeply stupid, they buy the premise and accept he's alive. Some characters in the film even have lengthy one-sided conversations that go on and on while completely oblivious.
And that's our economy.
The two losers are played by a bearded soft-spoken loser named Ben Bernanke who has taken a dead stock market and given it a fake 'life' and all the genuinely stupid people-- the amateur investor, the common folk who judge the success of the economy by a Dow number, etc.. they have swallowed this up.
The professional Investor, banks, major corporations, hedge fund managers, derivatives traders, etc... They all know 'Bernie' is dead as a donkey. But it serves their nefarious purposes to not only play along but encourage the ruse.
We make no secret of this-- we want the market to drop precipitously and for extended duration... We want the stock market to once again accurately reflect the True state of the US economy.
And if/when our desires become reality, you will see the market drop from this artificial 15,300 or such to the 7,500 to 8,000 range.
That is where the market should be because That is where the US economy is.
We don't want the economy where it is now.. this Fiction. We want to see these super-wealthy people lose Everything ideally and end once and for all, this confidence con-game of carrying around a flat-lined economy and dancing it around like there's a pulse.
And as long as Fed Chairs can manipulate the stock market to give the ruse of 'recovery' and it bumps up Presidential and Congressional polls, very little to nothing will ever be done legislatively to pass bills that create jobs or much of anything the bottom 99% can feel.
Remember the vast majority of Congresspeople of both parties are Filthy rich multi-millionaires. Even President Obama has a net worth of over $6.5 million mainly due to the success of his books.
Where do these wealthy people keep all their money? In banks??
No-- the stock market. So they will do whatever is necessary i.e spend whatever is necessary... Spend billions or trillions or even quadrillions to protect their millions.
And why not go all-in? Its taxpayer money, not theirs.
And if it takes carrying around a dead 'Bernie' and flailing its arms all about to give the appearance of life, then that's what they're going to do until they're either stopped or its no longer in their interest...
When enough everyday American suckers prop up the market by investing their sacred nest-eggs and re-stimulate the economy via debt-based consumption, then the financial elite can put 'Bernie' back in the box
We want this stock market to Crash badly.. You really should to.