The market going up is supposed to convince people that a 'recovery' is taking place. It moves in anticipation of what the market wants people to believe will happen. It is a self-fullfilling cycle courtesy of the Fed. Recoveries always occur after recessions. However, with stock prices back to pre-crisis levels, it is apparent the market is rigged. We have less banks today than a year and a half ago. We have double the unemployment. Retail sales are not anywhere near where they were. Certainly house prices are not! Consumer spending is up for the 5th striaght month because mortgage's are not being paid, even though the tenants still occupy the banks home. Gas at $3 removes any gains made by the short-term census jobs impact on the economy. Corporations are reporting better numbers, not because conditions are better, but because they have laid off 8 million salaried workers. the market is the feds only tool because it is the only tool that will convince people things are getting better, even when they are not. The public capitulated their holdings of stocks last March. They are not feeling the wealth effect of this rally. Yet, when corporations see their stock improving, they are fooled into believing things are improving and begin to hire in anticipation of demand in order to ramp up production of inventories. Boom and Bust over and over in this undersaved, financed, fiat-based economy.
