Quote from pitz:
The banks are lending. They're lending to participants in the stock market who are driving it up, thus, eventually, making equity financing less expensive for businesses that want to grow.
If the stock market had a reasonable P/E ratio for the past decade, ie: something like 25, you would have seen many new and productive businesses created, instead of money being dumped into real estate. Business owners re-invest their profits typically (hence, dividend rates are relatively low). Real estate owners, ie: the average joe sixpack, consumes any RE profits on useless junk from China.
The only reason the RE bubble was able to inflate, anyways, was that nobody had any confidence in the stock market, or in business ownership more broadly, so they invested in RE, and in the debt of RE companies.
Trust me, if the P/E of the markets (based on 5-year trailing earnings) is pumped up to 40-50 (ie: Dow 36,000!) -- you'll see lots of new and useful businesses created. IPO's will become alive again. Business owners will feel 'rich', and will start sharing some of the wealth, competing for the best and brightest college grads to grow their businesses even further.
Overly tight business credit, and overly loose consumer credit is the huge problem here. It will be at least a decade before 'consumer' lending comes back -- but properly capitalized businesses, with sustainable business models, right now, can borrow at <1% right now, with ease, and are just cleaning up. [/QUOTE
Everybody and their frcikin grandmother knows that a stock market PROPERLY funded; not propped up on fantastical views and debt from the federal treasury causing taxes to be raised to such levels that the income struggles to keep up is a good idea. isnt that what we just did!