I have a question

[malaise]

How come when it was clear to all that the economy was tanking from February last year M$Greedia ignored the markets and all the bad news and now all I am hearing is the markets, the markets, the markets?

Fuck the markets - Bush fucked the entire planet.

Where is the money? Who has the money?

[Warpy]

1. The quick answer is that the money never existed in the first place

that it was a numbers game based on pushing the greatest number of people possible into debt instead of keeping them productive and paying them fair wages.

Instead of building wealth, something that relies on maintaining and building new infrastructure, they concentrated on profit from selling off our infrastructure and allowing what couldn't be sold to fall into decay. Profit in this case was a numbers game based on nothing and it's gone back to the nothingness it was based on.

While the biggest thieves still have the illusion of numbers on their side, without wealth to back it up those numbers are worthless.

[elizfeelinggreat]

2. The stupid poor people have the money, didn't you hear?

But they blew it on inflated housing costs and ruined the country for the rest of us ... and ah, they must be burning that cash in their basements, the idiots!


:sarcasm:

[Coyote_Bandit]

3. Stock valuation

is essentially little more than a discounted future cash flow. Stock values have gone down because future earnings and stock appreciation have gone down.

Granted that is oversimplified but it does explain why the "money" simply vanished. The only real money was what was originally invested into the market. The value of that real investment of cash was based on future expectations. Since those expectations have proven to be wrong the value of the securities has changed.