A Stock-Market Milestone is Reached, But Who Cares?
by Richard Eskow
"There was great economic news on Monday – for somebody.
Monday morning the stock market passed another historic milestone, as the S&P 500 composite index briefly passed the 2,000 mark before ending the day on a record-breaking high. That barrier had symbolic value for many investors, although perhaps not as much as the once-unimaginable goal of seeing the Dow Jones Industrial Average reach the 10,000 mark. A money manager in the go-go nineties once described that figure as “Mount Dow’s summit,” and so it was.
Once upon a time, investors could only dream of reaching that lofty Shangri-La.
But reach it they did. The Dow reached the 10,000 mark in 1999. Then it passed the 15,000 peak, in May of last year. That was well above its levels before the financial crisis, thanks to a Wall Street bailout that supercharged the stock market while others were left in the dust. As of this writing the S&P 500 is 1997.92, while the Dow closed today at a once-inconceivable 17,076.87.
No wonder the market’s hot. Corporate profits are soaring, and they’re expected to stay that way. “Based on the analysts’ forecasts of S&P 500 companies,” writes Sam Ro in Business Insider, “… profit margins will average 9.3% for (this) year and then jump to 10.0% in 2015.”
There’s no doubt about it: In some corners of the nation, life is sweet. But out beyond Washington and Wall Street and the Hamptons, out in the world where most Americans live, things aren’t quite as rosy. Floyd Norris of the New York Times described the economic landscape rather succinctly last April:
“Corporate profits are at their highest level in at least 85 years. Employee compensation is at the lowest level in 65 years.”"
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http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/08/26/stock-market-milestone-reached-who-cares
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