Remember when that analyst said Madoff had to be a scam.

[edhopper]

When Harry Markopolos was asked to find out how Madoff could keep getting the returns he did, he report he couldn't and it had to be fraud.
Don't you get the same feeling about the Stock Market these days. The economy is in worse shape than it was six months ago, yet the market keeps going up.
Is Goldman is just waiting for the right time to pull the plug and make billions shorting the market.

[glowing]

1. Probably.

Shock and Awe

[movonne]

5. I'm already in shock and awe...

[Warpy]

2. it will as long as there are too many hoarded dollars

and little else place to go. Those hoarders aren't going to risk their money on startup industries. Nor are they going to bury gold in the back yard, although they're also driving up the price of antiques and fine art.

They want someplace safe that will generate income.

The rich have always had to be forced to invest in this country and its people through progressive taxation. Never forget that.

Until that is the case or the dollar goes back to its 2000 level on the currency markets, expect the paper value of the Dow to increase.

[PDJane]

3. Precisely.

Well said, and terse.

Thank you.

[jefffou]

12. .....what else is there?

The Spring of 2000.....but who's counting?

As some have said, "the only thing worse for America than having a financial-related bubble is NOT having one." And there's the conundrum. What else is there?

Can this country, as a whole, create value outside of them?

Can companies (and the markets they comprise) achieve growth consistently without the invisible hand?

I don't have clue....but I dang sure hope so.

Jeff
http://www.401kfundadvice.com/

[90-percent]

4. Bubbles

After all the bubbles we've lived through in the last twenty or so years, I now feel I've seen it enough to at least see history repeating itself with this disparity between the prosperity on wall street and the despair on main street.

I have no interests in the stock market. The gambling hall ponzi scheme rigged house odor has been with me since at least the internet bubble burst of what, the late nineties?

-90% jimmy

[damntexdem]

6. But it's totally different -- that was just a scam, while this is ...

uh, uh, uh .....................

;-)

[unblock]

7. except that the economy actually is better now than 6 months ago

we've gone from really really crappy to merely really crappy.
see? only one really.

"getting better" doesn't mean "good".

[DemReadingDU]

8. It's a casino

Entice as many people (suckers) into the gambling parlor as it can, until Goldman decides to pull the plug and make billions, leaving the suckers holding empty bags.

[femrap]

9. Goldboy Sacks

and the others are borrowing from The Fed at 0 to .25% and playing the market. They also have some of the taxpayer's money still available to play with as well.

Plus The Fed is buying our Treasury Bills, Notes and Bonds because no one else (China) wants them. Unprecedented. We're borrowing from ourselves, I think.

The Fed's policy is simply 'Extend & Pretend.'

It will end very badly....and probably this year.

[pa28]

10. As usual I'm sure plenty of ordinary investors will be hurt.

Wall Street by nature will run the market up to the highest possible point and then try to sell it.

Before stocks begin to change hands and find their rally top I'm sure we'll hear plenty of talk about how it's time to put faith in "buy and hold" and become "fully invested" again. Sheep shearing in other words.

[Odin2005]

11. The stock market has been a Ponzi Scheme since at least the 80s.

A Ponzi Scheme based on 401K money.

[CoffeeCat]

13. How is the market being propped up then?

Who is pumping it up...institutional investors?

Or maybe the bailout money is in some fund--and they're buying/trading stocks with it. Certainly
would prop up the market nicely.

Glad we got out two years ago. You just never know what the criminals will do next...

[Statistical]

14. `Or maybe things have improved.

When the S&P hit a low at 683 ( a staggering 56% decline from the peak) the market wasn't pricing in a recovery or even a long recession.

The market at 683 was pricing end of modern capitalism, and a massive financial collapse and depression.

From that level anything better than complete financial inhalation is in improvement and an indication that market was under priced.

When market is underpriced it tends to rise. Things can be bad and market rises. Why? Because they aren't AS BAD as expectation.

People look at the climb from 683 and forget that today at 1136 before the opening bell we are STILL 27% from the peak and compared to 10 years ago down 20%.