But They Took Our Job!

I'm tired of people all wanting to lay the blame at the feet of illegals, supposed government manipulation, or the Obama Administration. This market is as tough to understand as ever, but these three scapegoats are dead horses. As far as I'm concerned, the situation is far too complex to blame any one or two or even three entities for that matter. Heck, in England, another economy where production has been outsourced and paper-changing has become a major economic sector, they are blaming the Polish for coming in and creating more of a welfare state and "stealing their jobs". If your job is so easily done by someone with often little to no experience and the inability to speak the country's dominant language, then don't you think it' s time to go and do better for yourself and find a job where you can use your talents to succeed? I don't buy the "they took our job" argument. If you want to hate anyone for "stealing" jobs then blame corporatism and outsourcing or go and invest in yourself and get more experience or a better education and stop expecting the rest of the world to bow to America and cater to us.

Market manipulation, to some extent, could theoretically happen. However, the comment about how the Dow gained 220 points on the same day that GM filed for bankruptcy is somehow proof of market manipulation is just plain wrong. There was so much market stress and money and worry tied up in companies like GM that once GM flew the white flag and it was clear that there was an exit strategy for a company as big as GM, people began to see that the economic storm had begun to slowly move past its highest intensity and there was hope to at least restructure the company. Whether or not GM will necessarily be able to succeed again is another question, but think about it- what's more reasonable and more likely: that the entire stock market, possibly the entire economic system is being manipulated by some "shadow government" or group of people; or that the GM bankruptcy filing took a huge weight off of everyone's shoulders and showed the economy and the world that it is possible to wind down a bit from all the tension and worry and to have a realistic and reasonable agreement of outcomes between many groups of people? Just think about what you're claiming if you think that the entire market is being manipulated.

Now I would agree that changing interest rates and printing money out of thin air is a manipulation of the markets, but this has been a widely accepted fact that changing these economic elements will change the basic economic environment. These and other factors are tools that remain at the FED's disposal. That kind of manipulation is going on, yes, but the sky isn't falling Mr. Little.

The rally has EVERYTHING to do with the economy, the global economy, and right now it's sorting itself out in a major way. There are still HUGE hurdles to overcome, and even I believe that inflation could really hurt us all in the coming decade.

It's been a horribly tough year for everyone, and it's easy to be xenophobic and blame this economic downturn on outsiders or "shadow governments" or the new guy in the White House. Why not lay any blame on the ratings providers like Moody's or Standard and Poor's? Why isn't anyone annoyed with the fact that Wall Street got a nearly 1 trillion dollar bailout by the Bush Administration (on debatable grounds) while our auto industry failed to get more than a few billion thrown at it? I know one has UNIONS and the other does not, and that may help to shape some opinion, but the American People got blindsided in September and October of 2008.