Dow closes at highest level since May 2008. For the week, Nasdaq gains 1.7%, and S&P 500 adds 1.4%.

[MadHound]

12. What is key is the companies that make up the Dow

There are only thirty corporations that make up the Dow index,
http://money.cnn.com/data/dow30/

A lot of them are seriously tied into the defense industry, get heavy government help(bank bailout), or are actually pretty recession proof.

Same with the NASDAQ 100
http://www.nasdaq.com/markets/indices/nasdaq-100.aspx

Also, you've got to remember, this is a global economy right now, and while times are tough here, elsewhere they are going gangbusters, like in China, and India, where a lot of our jobs went.

Thus, we're looking at a fairly skewed picture based on the well being of 130 corporations that do business everywhere. Since those profits made abroad stay abroad due to tax loopholes, we don't even benefit from corporate profits abroad, either in money coming into the country or taxes coming into the country.

It truly is a distorted picture of how our economy is doing. Truly, the only thing that these truly show is how well these corporations are doing, and how much the rich are benefiting.