Willie at one point in his life believed financial markets were a better measure of economic performance than he believes they are now. I don’t think he ever said he didn’t know the difference between the two, but rather at one point in his life he was naive and thought the markets were a stronger reflection of the state of the economy than they actually are.
That’s how I read his comments, unless there are different comments WoodStool is referring to.
Let me guess, some genetically inferior specimen is having trouble comprehending my arguments? again?
Never once in my life did I think a plunge or a surge was a reflection of the economy, that's just plain stupid. I used to think the markets were a reflection of the economy long term, but that fallacy as been debunked ten fold by now.
In the 80's, the markets and the economy surged , more of the old fashion economic textbook relationship.
In the 90's, the markets surged on pure speculation. Dotcom companies that never made a profit or paid a dividend, hell, they didn't even own tangible assets, had higher street values than long established companies that had everything the dotcoms lacked. Amazingly, some people were surprised by the dotcom bust.
Under Obama, we had the worst extended period of economic growth since the Great Depression, yet the financial markets surged. How can that be? Rather easy, actually. Companies cut costs, layed people off, didn't spend money on R & D, didn't take chances, hoarded cash.............. the weren't growing, they were retracting while they improved their liquidity and their "market value"
The Obama era ended and real connection between economic growth and the markets. Obama tried to grow the economy with government solutions, a stimulus, QE I, QE II, QE III QE into infinity and beyond. The markets loved government intervention, and they loved bad economic news because it meant the government was going to stay involved. Any good economic news, the markets had a bad day. Now how fucked is that?
I have more knowledge in my ear wax than the fucking idiot ever possessed in his cumulative lifetime, he can't understand even follow simpleton discussions. Plus he throws hissy fits like some whiny little bitch. lose lose lose lose lose, on any and all fronts