@ Zogler:
To fix your statement about federal spending, most federal spending actually benefits the rich, especially in the United States. Think about Mortage interest rate return, capital gains tax reduction, SSI income relief for widows of white men, etc.
Edit: and other parts about the Tax code.
The vast majority of budget cuts directly impacts the 99.9%, while leaving the .1% relatively unscathed. SInce the vast majority of deficit spending benefits the lower and middle income classes, deficit reduction widens the gap between the mega rich and lower/middle class people. More
here.
Taxes are not an issue for the .1%, since politicians willingly let them commit tax evasion or even encourage them to do so.
There is a viral video that underlines wealth inequality in USA really well. It is applicable to almost every nation nowadays.
Link:
Wealth Inequality in America
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21621048
New York's Dow Jones share index set a new all-time high on Tuesday, while London's FTSE 100 closed at it highest level in five years.
The stock market is not the economy. The problem is that the irrational participants in any market do not always properly anticipate how macro variables will filter through to the micro. Thus, these variables (economic activity, profits etc.) do not always perfectly translate into stock market prices.
The market is not an efficient pricing mechanism that accurately prices in recession or even most things. The participants in any market (e.g. the stock market) suffer from the worst case of “shoot first, ask questions later” you’ve ever seen in your life. Human beings are extremely quick to pull the trigger on something they don’t understand or are totally ill-equipped to psychologically adapt to.
Let's not forget that humans can’t be perfect reasoners because our brains have limited processing capacity, and because our brains are evolved kluges of “spaghetti code” rather than optimally-designed reasoning machines. We commit reasoning errors so often that psychologists have given names to many of the most common errors, names like "recency bias" and "confirmation bias" (both very applicable to the stock market).
The bottom line is the fact that the stock market is not the economy, mainly because its irrational participants generally fail to anticipate how the two actually impact one another. More
here.