We're no expert on the stock market, so let's make that clear from the getgo.
But Friday's rampant headline across the U.S., "Market dives on fears," deserves some thought and opinion.
Fear and expectation, not so much fact, drive the market.
Yes, fear. Not record company profits like we're currently seeing with many, many blue chip firms.
Take heed, America.
The stock market controls your life, like it or not.
Got a 401(k) or other pension investment?
How confident does the market make you feel about retirement savings?
Own some stocks?
How about your publicly-traded employer?
How's that for job security.
In one day, because of failed expectations, millions of stock market transactions caused the Dow Jones Industrial Average to plummet by 500-plus points.
Panic? It was on the market floor.
That was the biggest single-day loss since Dec. 1, 2008, at the height of the "financial crisis."
Who, for example, of the Greatest Generation would've thought that budget problems in Greece would cause their hard-earned pension investment to tank?
Things certainly have changed.
America's is the global player, it's economy tied directly to that of other "industrialized" nations.
Our economy is the world's economy.
"Growth in the U.S. has been weaker than expected, unemployment remains stubbornly high and the housing crisis is far from over," Michael Schuman of The Curious Capitalist said in the aftermath.
And there's something else Schuman said (www.curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com): "The ascent of stock prices earlier this year, especially in the U.S., was detached from the reality of the world economy."
Again, the market has been operating on failed expectation ... "detached from ... reality."
Boy, that really evokes confidence in the market in general.
No wonder so many people are selling their stocks.
Sorry, we hate to be pessimistic, but ... allow us to vent.
And so here we are, America, stuck in a political world of what we'll call "hybrid partisanship," where controlling parties - Republicans and Democrats - are sitting further and further from the middle aisle, unable to craft meaningful solutions to most any issue, let alone the economy.
Boy, we wish grandpa were still around.
