$12 Trillion Has Been Spent Propping Up The Stock Market So Far Anyone Know About This?

[DanieRains]

Watching the news yesterday I heard an anchor say that worldwide $12 trillion has been spent propping up the "market".

I think that number was worldwide.

Anyone know about this?

And they don't want to spend $2 Trillion propping up our country's suffering people.

This needs to be made real news.

[SheltieLover]

1. K&R!

Ty!

[Hela]

2. My concern is that if they can prop it up...

they can let it fall, and will do so when Biden takes office on January 21. Watch for a lot of R's to start selling off.

[duforsure]

3. yep,

Just didn't know haw many trillions , and that number is likely more i think that may be getting embezzled probably. Maybe kickbacks to trump thru his campaign.

[DeeNice]

4. Thom Hartman mentioned this a minute ago on his radio show

Weird because I was just thinking I would like more information on this.

[gratuitous]

5. I got a statement yesterday

I have retirement money in three or four places, and yesterday I got a statement for July from one of them. On an annualized basis, I made an 81% return in July on the money I have there. I got another statement a couple of weeks ago on another account, and that monthly statement worked out to an annualized 55% return. In the middle of a pandemic. With millions upon millions out of work and businesses shuttering left and right. And people having to fight tooth and nail for a piddly $600 a week to help them feed their families and keep a roof over their heads.

This is totally anecdata, posted by an anonymous person on an internet message board, but what conclusion would you draw from these assertions? I'm either a liar or something really hinky is going on in the financial sector.

[wryter2000]

6. There's definitely something funny going on

My 401k is a conservative fund. At the beginning of the pandemic, it lost about 5% of its value. Since then, it's recovered and gone up another 5%. It continues to rise.

We've always known that the market wasn't the economy, but it at least used to be correlated with the economy.

[UpInArms]

7. Fed's aggressive monetary policy behind the stock market rally

The Federal Reserve Bank has been a controversial institution since the founding of our country. Thomas Jefferson hated the idea; Alexander Hamilton championed the notion and prevailed. Jefferson bemoaned Hamilton’s ambitions in a letter to James Monroe: “We are ruined Sir, if we do not over-rule the principles that ‘“the more we owe, the more prosperous we shall be." ’ The argument continues today.

It's no secret that easy monetary policy, which began in earnest during the Great Recession of 2008-2009, fuels higher stock prices. In December 2008, the Fed initiated “quantitative easing” and by March 9, 2009, stocks began a 10-year bull run. The Fed’s balance sheet grew over the ensuing six years to $4.5 trillion. Fast forward to March of 2020, as the economy shut down due to the Great Virus Crisis (aptly named by Dr. Ed Yardeni). The Fed acted swiftly and powerfully, snapping up corporate bonds and ETFs to provide liquidity to the credit markets. The balance sheet has ballooned to approximately $7 trillion in a matter of months.

... snip ...

Because there is an inverse correlation between the rise in the Fed’s balance sheet and the velocity of money.

Jerome Powell and friends have likely ensured the 2020 recession will be the shortest on record. And with the Fed backstopping financial assets, it is no surprise that stocks have rallied furiously off the March 23rd bottom.

More at:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/07/12/feds-monetary-policy-behind-market-rally-and-potentially-short-recession/5412979002/

[jaxexpat]

17. Amazing and curious.....

that the contemporary performance of "the market" doesn't align with the current human condition. Is that because it is so far removed from relevance? From the fact that markets have value in-so-far as and only when, they are arenas for transactions of valuables?

[UpInArms]

21. Actually, it is more related to an Executive Order by Raygun

Working Group on Financial Markets

"Plunge Protection Team" was originally the headline for an article in The Washington Post on February 23, 1997,[2] and has since been used by some as an informal term to refer to the Working Group.[3][4] Initially, the term was used to express the opinion that the Working Group was being used to prop up the stock markets during downturns.[5][6] Financial writers for British newspapers The Observer and The Daily Telegraph, along with U.S. Congressman Ron Paul, writers Kevin Phillips (who claims "no personal firsthand knowledge" [7]) and John Crudele,[8] have charged the Working Group with going beyond their legal mandate.[failed verification] Charles Biderman, head of TrimTabs Investment Research, which tracks money flow in the equities market, suspected that following the 2008 financial crisis the Federal Reserve or U.S. government was supporting the stock market. He stated that "If the money to boost stock prices did not come from the traditional players, it had to have come from somewhere else" and "Why not support the stock market as well? Moreover, several officials have suggested the government should support stock prices."[9]

The “market” does not operate in the free market world that is so beloved by conservatives ... it has been completely cut free from the misery on Main Street... all bad news has been priced in, all rumors are reasons for new highs, reality does not impinge in any fashion.

[jaxexpat]

22. Oh my, the "democratization" of markets.

I'm ultimately naive, it seems. So it was all intentional, after a fashion. The markets are instruments of government/Governments are supporters of markets. That's really pretty ingenious. Solves most of the problems of pre-WWII/cold war global politics as well as taking an honest stab at neocolonialist reconstruction.
One might think that humans were not mindless after all. Except, as you say, Reality......
The seeking hordes stretching and breaking the girdles of national, continental borders.
The markets, then, have no planned response to that after all? The next tectonic shift in eco-econo-geo-politics? And we all swim in the detritus of what it will be.
Sincere thanks for your response.

[UpInArms]

23. ...

Peeps have no idea what actually happens to their 401ks ... those are just more tools to be used for shifting funds

[jaxexpat]

25. If I got it right...

it was initially intended to be a means for quantifying the value of golden parachutes.
A telling portrayal of Democratic economic reforms. As soon as it hit the books, it was trader heaven. Most people didn't/don't realize their retirement fantasies are really "trader heaven". That would shake up main street, eh?

[UpInArms]

28. You have a firm grasp

Of the mess that now passes for “market”

[jimfields33]

8. It has to be world wide

Our whole debt from day 1 is around 23 trillion. Only around 3 trillion has been spent on coronavirus.

[k2qb3]

24. The Fed isn't part of the federal government, it's a private bank.

They can buy assets with freshly printed money and it doesn't impact the national debt at all.

Big picture, the collapse of petro-industrial civilization has been underway at least since 2008, although it corresponds to the zero-boundary crisis that dates from about 2005, and really has roots going back a lot earlier than that. 2020 is a massive acceleration of that process, not just because of covid but a lot of other things lining up at the same time, capital would be fleeing from the fossil fuel industry and all its assorted hangers-on even if there was no pandemic, absent extreme measures.

The 1980-2008 boom was almost entirely fueled by interest rate cuts from the Fed, every time they slowed down the rate of the cuts we had a recession.

Anyway, it's getting more and more expensive to keep all the dead institutions and assets solvent, since everyone holds massive amounts of assets valued on the basis of 1980-2008 being a sustainable normal, which it never was.

This is a much bigger deal than most people understand, the resources we should be using to adapt to a changing world are being used to try to stop the world from spinning, to preserve wealth that wasn't real to begin with.

[jimfields33]

27. Oh wow. I had no idea. Thanks for that explanation.

[abqtommy]

9. Well, this is one more thing we know about now. Thanks!

[yaesu]

10. I lost track at 9 billion as the Fed started buying stocks & junk bonds, wall street banksters

are the only people tRumpsters are worried about.

[BarbD]

11. How many zeros in a trillion?

My eyes glaze over and I simply can't get my head around this stuff. Still something is terribly wrong if the Stock Market continues to rise while millions continue to suffer.

I do understand though the principal of "Let them eat cake."

[cbdo2007]

12. Of course...to them capitalism means giving money to big business and the stock market for...

the appearance of success because that allows them to cash out and make tons of money.

Our entire economy is based on quisi-capitalism-socialism but is basically a house of cards. A HUGE house of cards with a hurricane blowing in.

[IronLionZion]

13. The stock market looks like it's relieving itself all over us

just wait for the feeling that something is trickling down on you.

Republicans will always piss on us and tell us it's raining. As soon as President Biden is declared the winner, these assholes will start complaining about the debt and try to block any assistance for working class, unemployed, or any virus treatment. Bootstraps!

Taking handouts from the government is smart business if you're a corporation, but you're a bum if you're trying to pay rent or feed your kids.

[WyattKansas]

14. That is why tRUMP has to confiscate the Trust Funds...

To put it all on 'Number 7' at the Wall Street Casino.

After all, life just doesn't exist for him and Republicans, unless Wall Street is Rockin' and Rollin' burning through everything the American People can give to them as their lifeblood and any safety is bled dry.

[Tommymac]

15. Still just a drop in the bucket compared to the US Bloated Defense Budget.

Heres an old Ben Cohen TM clip from 2012 that helps explain the issue. A bit dated as far as the numbers go, but still very relevant. Hope Ben will update it someday.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

16. Simple. Since the March stock bottom, the dollar has been getting weaker; down more than 10% vs Euro

[ashredux]

18. Three words....Short The Market

Can’t say exactly when, but the Piper will be paid....

[SCantiGOP]

19. My three words, for the past 6 months:

Avoid the Market

[unitedwethrive]

20. REMEMBER...everything the repubs do, from deregulating to propping the market will stop happening

when they lose, so that they can blame the Dems for tanking the economy. Our way of building up the economy is actual, concrete value, vs. their way of smoke and mirrors. Also, of course unethical big industry prefers not to have any environmental or other regulations...they are important for a healthy society, but add cost. Don't get sucked in to their spin!

[fescuerescue]

26. So Trump added another $12 trillion to the national Debt

Biden should point that out in the debates.