The Rich Get Richer

[CavLancer]

All this QE has raised to stock market the new heights. Yet I hear good family wage jobs are ever harder to find. So is the stock market and the economy of the average Joe at all connected?

 

[Antilogic]

Theoretically and indirectly, yes.

But it doesn't feel like it.

 

[Zelig]

Well this is a particular problem in the US.

Wealth held by top 1% in 2006:
Canada: 12.1%
USA: 18%

Wealth held by top 1% in 2012:
Canada: 10.6%
USA: 19.3%

 

[Whomp]

I don't buy the narrative that QE drove the stock market. In fact, the bond market sold off last year on QE easing announcement and rallied on QE easing this year. The refi opportunity on homes has been helpful to everyone but the wealthy don't have a large percentage of their net worth in their home.

My wife works in talent acquisition and they are getting rfp's starting last year for their services like never before. Less in Europe but Dubai and North America are really strong.


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[Timsup2nothin]

Indeed they do. Process continues until enough people figure out that the economic system is a screw job, then they burn the rich at the stake and create a new economic system with a new batch of slightly rich...who start getting richer.

 

[ls612]

Eh, I find it hard to believe that QE is what drove the stock market to record highs. The P/E ratio of the S&P 500 nowadays is just slightly above historical averages, at around 20. By comparison it was between 30 and 40 when the dot-com bubble burst.

 

[Harv]

I don't buy the narrative that QE drove the stock market.

A hard bounce off a bottom in March, 2009 then? The last discussion we had about this, you said we were in the second phase of the bull market. Based on the discussion here, (nobody believes it) the market is still growing.

In fact, the bond market sold off last year on QE easing announcement and rallied on QE easing this year. The refi opportunity on homes has been helpful to everyone but the wealthy don't have a large percentage of their net worth in their home.

I remember watching Jim Cramer's Mad Money Show for pure entertainment, but every once in a while, he delivers a gem. One such gem, in my opinion, was when he explained that the stock market is a side show compared to the bond market.

I also remember refinancing a house at about the same time Philip Morris USA floated bonds to finance their purchase of US Tobacco. (I think) There was no bond market activity at the time. I also remember the interest rate I paid was about half the interest rate they paid. I should have known that there was something seriously wrong with the bond market.

My wife works in talent acquisition and they are getting rfp's starting last year for their services like never before.

The next time I talk to somebody in the "talent acquisition" business, I will ask. The rumor I hear is 89% of employed Americans say they want to change jobs as soon as the market gets better.

Another fun part of "talent acquisition" is finding the said talent.

Eh, I find it hard to believe that QE is what drove the stock market to record highs. The P/E ratio of the S&P 500 nowadays is just slightly above historical averages, at around 20. By comparison it was between 30 and 40 when the dot-com bubble burst.

20 is just slightly above historical averages? I thought the historical average is 14 or 15.

 

[CavLancer]

Without QE where would the stock market be?

 

[Borachio]

Without QE where would the big banks be, is a better question, imo.

Without QE the stock market would have readjusted long before now in any case, wouldn't it?

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Where would we be without Sat Nav?

 

[ls612]

20 is just slightly above historical averages? I thought the historical average is 14 or 15.

16 or 17 is more accurate for the last 40 years. And the difference is probably driven by cheap oil and a strong Dollar more than anything else.

 

[onejayhawk]

But the Obama Administration says the recovery was middle class out.

J

 

[GenMarshall]

Nothing new here. The rich get richer and screws over the poor has been going on.
I'd say eat the rich!

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Nothing new here. The rich get richer and screws over the poor has been going on.
I'd say eat the rich!

Eventually. Perhaps not too much longer now in fact.

 

[Borachio]

"To them that hath shall be given, and from them that hath not shall be taken away even that which they hath."

(Or something like it.)

But, although that explains nicely why the rich get richer, how, if someone "hath" nothing, shall they have something taken away from them?"

Some things are deeply mysterious to me.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

"To them that hath shall be given, and from them that hath not shall be taken away even that which they hath."

(Or something like it.)

But, although that explains nicely why the rich get richer, how, if someone "hath" nothing, shall they have something taken away from them?"

Some things are deeply mysterious to me.

There is a quality in human beings that makes them deeply reluctant to kill other human beings. When it seems like 'those that hath not' have nothing left, they still have that...for a while.

 

[Borachio]

Oh right. You mean it's not about having wealth at all? But about having compassion?

That's interesting.

I still don't see how it works. It still seems to require people to simultaneously have something and have nothing, imo.

 

[Harv]

There is a quality in human beings that makes them deeply reluctant to kill other human beings.

That would be called a conscience.

noun
1. the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one's conduct or motives, impelling one toward right action: to follow the dictates of conscience.
2. the complex of ethical and moral principles that controls or inhibits the actions or thoughts of an individual.
3. an inhibiting sense of what is prudent: I'd eat another piece of pie but my conscience would bother me."

 

[Borachio]

Conscientia = self-knowledge.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=conscience

 

[Timsup2nothin]

That would be called a conscience.

I disagree. Humans have a deep rooted reluctance to kill other humans that restrains them even when the killing can be done in good conscience. Killing someone in self defense who is clearly intent on killing you doesn't conflict with conscience...but it is still hard to do.

Rising up to kill oppressors can be done in good conscience...but it is still something people have to be brought to with far more oppression. As I said, that restraint is the last thing the rich will take away.