User 353732's  Instablog

The previous post explored the consequences of the manipulated stock market in the US for the middle class.

A reasonable and trusting person will ask"How is it possible to manipulate the stock market?"

The Middle Class has been indoctrinated  by Wall St and its  minnions in business schools into believing that the stock markets can be implicitly  trusted because markets have no masters and therefore, cannot be subverted by the few at the expense of the many. All small investor/retail investor participation in the stock market for both tactical and strategic reasons is based on this one great article of faith.

Many writers on SA have suggested that the stock markets in the US have been and are being manipulated to serve the interests of the Government( our policies are working), Media(the elites know best) and Wall St( recapitalization of Big Money and escape from TARP and hence bonus limits or anty other limits on behavior).

If one accepts this explanation, then an even more insidious notion has to be entertained. This is the thought that the Inside Money(ie Wall St and cronies in politics and media) is using the Outside or Dumb Money(ie  Middle class or small investor money, directly or through intermediaries) to create a financial  exit for itself  by encouraging the dumb money to buy financial, service and media stocks. Thus, the Middle class becomes the duped exit for the Upper class.

Hard times are no fun ,even for people with secure jobs and good incomes and miserable for those with no jobs and few savings. It is natural to want a recovery and want it soon.

Unfortunately, there are some big negatives to contend with.

1. Taxes and rumors of taxes: almost every day there are either announced increases in taxes or fees or other charges or threats of increases from cities(eg NYC) or counties(eg Montgomery County, MD)or states(eg California) or the Federal Government( including the Postal Service) or reductions in the quality of municipal, state and federal services. These depress already nervous consumers and small/medium businesses while creating more uncertainty for investors. More risk aversion and cash hoarding or flight to tax shelters is a consequence.