Saturday, September 26, 2020

CNN Business asks 'How can the stock market be booming while millions are out of work?'

I wrote about the disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street two months ago in The Economist explains why the stock market is rallying during the pandemic. Since I posted that entry, CNN Business examined that paradox in two videos that I'm featuring today. The more recent asks the question The Economist and I implied in July, How can the stock market be booming while millions are out of work?

CNN’s Jon Sarlin explains why just looking at the stock market at a time of mass unemployment isn’t good enough.
Those answer fit with those The Economist came up with two months ago. "Whose economy are they talking about," indeed.

CNN Business uploaded an interview with Jamie Dimon, who noted that "the stock market doesn’t reflect Americans’ pain" last month that examined that question from another angle.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon tells CNN Business’ Christine Romans how he expects the US economic recovery to look as well as his plans for the New York Jobs CEO Council, which seeks to create more job opportunities for minority workers.
The good news is that Dimon is saying the right things, as he appears to understand the problems and has solutions for them. The bad news is that he and other investors may be counting on another round of relief for the COVID-19 pandemic, but it hasn't happened yet. It's possible that the rush to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Supreme Court seat might just suck up all the energy that could have gone to that until the election. Mitch McConnell's priorities in action. Sigh.

7 comments:

  1. Trump will give financial relief just before the election to try and buy votes. It is likely to work if he throws out some mumbling about covid being licked too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey, k-dog, good to see you again! Yeah, he will certainly try, probably by redirecting funds like he did for the border wall. That won't be enough. For really big money, he needs the Senate and House to agree. So far, they aren't agreeing or even compromising.

      Delete
  2. How ironic it is that Dimon, who has more money that 99.999% of the people on the entire planet and whose company received millions in TARP money in the wake of the Great Recession, is talking about how the stock market doesn't reflect "Americans' pain" (as if he'd have any way to understand what that pain really looks or feels like). Better late than never, I suppose -- but Dimon is not exactly an innocent bystander. He and others like him have contributed to that pain. For a lot of people on "Main Street", their lives never really fully returned to normal after 2008 (and let's be honest -- "normal" is very much a relative word, and it doesn't automatically mean that what was happening before was really all that good or all that healthy. All it really means is that it was familiar.) Yes, Dimon is saying the right words...but talk is cheap. It's easy to talk about belling the cat, as long as you don't have to actually do it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I found it ironic and hypocritical as well, but keep in mind that hypocrisy is the tribute vice plays to virtue. At least Dimon knows what virtue is!

      Delete
  3. "Stock value calculator" is on topic, so it stays despite my low opinion of "crack" spam based on the flood of them in the comments to a fundraising post. I deleted all of them there.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Flattery will get you nowhere if you use it to convince me to allow a bunch of off-topic spam links through. Deleted.

      Delete