Attribution: Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. (Note: Wiley Coyote cartoon Illustrations are not in the public domain. This image of a coyote standing at the edge of a cliff is.)
We are in a Wily Coyote moment, when he runs out beyond the cliff but hasn’t looked down yet. — Charles Justice, Prince Rupert, BC, commenting on the recent NY Times article, Why the Stock Market Makes No Sense Right Now (see below).
Call me dense, but for the life of me I have not been able to figure out what’s going with the stock market. I don’t own stocks, so I don’t sweat the market’s daily ups and downs. But I do watch PBS NewsHour most weeknights, and they always end their news summary with a short market report…it’s up a few of points, down a few of points. Also, I read articles about the market in the New York Times. Everything I’ve seen indicates that the market will rise if things are going along smoothly, and drop if bad things — that it, things that might hurt stock values — are happening. Makes sense, right?
But ever since T. Rump was reelected, the market had risen, often to new heights, no matter what’s happening. OK. I get it. It’s only an index of the economy of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. It’s a casino that is no longer based on the valuation or performance of actual companies that make actual things useful to actual people, but where speculation leads to more speculation — a fun house full of bubbles made from the latest shiny development like AI that “promises” to make a few people richer…maybe…eventually….
But now we in an actual war with Iran, with a real global choke point being choked, and the day-to-day price of gasoline high as hell — no matter what the oil futures market is doing. And there’s no end in sight. Shouldn’t that make investors pull back? Sell? Drop stocks and buy bonds? Do something different?
Of course, T. Rump manipulates the market so his family and buddies can get richer trading on insider information. He announces some phony peace deal with Iran just before the market closes for the weekend on Friday afternoon, there is a huge buying spree and stock prices rise dramatically. The insiders who knew when he would make his announcement cash in big time. Then by Monday, when the actual news arrives and things look as bleak as ever, the market drops. But, not to worry, folks. The market will rise again because today’s slump sets up new grift cycle. On Friday, he’ll make another phony announcement right before the market closes, and give it another short-term bump. And, if I had to bet, I’d say the allegedly smart Wall Street crowd will fall for it again…and again.
OK. I get it. Investors are gullible. Investors are hopeful, optimistic, wishful thinkers. They live in a fantasy world where they will just keep getting richer and richer, no matter what happens. Also, these “Masters of the Universe,” as they like to think of themselves, believe they are audacious winners in a world where hesitation makes one a loser.
I NEVER HAD MUCH RESPECT FOR THE RAPACIOUS A…HOLES
I never had much respect for the rapacious A…holes who infest Wall Street. But I thought that they were at least smart, if only in a limited way. Not as smart as fully-developed humans with a conscience, sincere ethical principles and empathy. But smart about making money. Smart about financial risk and reward. Maybe, I thought, they’re too driven by greed and short term gain — but at least they’re smart enough to read obvious market pitfalls and avoid them — especially when those pitfalls follow a clear pattern.
But NOOO! They keep throwing money into the bottomless AI pit (which is propping up 1/3 to 1/2 the market, by the way). They keep ignoring numerous telltale signs — consumer bummerism, rising unemployment, the affordability crisis — that the real economy is coming unglued. And they keep falling for T. Rump’s scams. Like the Wiley Coyote character in the old Warner Brother Roadrunner cartoon series, they chase the illusive bird off a cliff, are suspended midair for a few seconds finally look down and, too late, and realize their predicament before plunging off the bottom of the screen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KDgDYdug6M&t=471s). Time after time.
So I had to ask myself: Are these investors just plain stupid? What else could explain their ridiculously risky behavior? Ever since T. Rump’s second term began, and especially since he and Bibi started bombing Iran, I see them ignoring stuff that seems obvious to me and the folks I know — namely, the underlying economy is flailing and the “bottom” is about to fall out the market. The real economy, to which the stock market is firmly attached like some sort of parasite, is based on the consumption of actual goods — stuff like food and clothing, cars and houses — and regular people’s capacity to consume those things is dangerously eroding. It’s obvious to everyone but the Wall Street denizens. So, eventually, I came up with another way to ask the question: Why can’t these fuckers see the obvious signs of the times?
Are they just isolated in their own la-la land of wealth which exist on a different plane of reality, or, actually, unreality? Are they scared but afraid to admit it to their rich friends? Or are they just in denial because the truth about their managerial malfeasance and their imminent demise is too painful to face? Do faded tales of wealthy investors defenestrating themselves onto Wall Street’s unforgiving pavement haunt their secluded moments?
WELL, I FINALLY GOT MY ANSWER
Well, I finally got my answer. It turns out they don’t have to see what’s going on — they don’t have to care. Because when the market crashes they won’t suffer any consequences. They’ll be bailed out — by us, the little people. (Or, so they think.)
The following excerpts from the NY Times OP, Why the Stock Market Makes No Sense Right Now (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/opinion/wall-street-markets-iran-ai.html) by author and Wall Street expert Kayla Scanion, explain the situation:
“The stock market has been trying to ignore the war in Iran. That’s been true over weeks of escalation and de-escalation, cease-fires, a blockade, and a blockade of a blockade… Markets have barely flinched…The word to describe what is happening is “shrug.”
There is plenty of information about the war, but: “The stock market has decided this available information is not relevant.“
Why?: ” …the markets are showing the single lesson that the past 40 years have taught them. It will always be saved.”
So: “Markets are not properly pricing risk, because they really don’t have to. They have assumed that the U.S. government will not allow them to implode, and that assumption is putting the world economy at stake.”
“What’s more, the new rescuer investors are counting on — artificial intelligence — is vulnerable to the exact risks markets are ignoring.” (That’s another story, but yes.)
Going all the way back to 1979, the article continues, Fed Chairs have manipulated interests rates to help the market recover. Time after time, crisis after crisis, the government has added trillion to the deficit to rescue the market from its irresponsible investment binges. So, eventually…
“The markets came to expect a form of salvation. In fact, markets expected so much support that they threw what were called “tantrums” when they didn’t get…The markets learned: They could demand rescue.“
Consider what happened under Obama. Not only were the people who caused the Great Recession of 2008 not punished, they were rewarded by being allowed to retain their obscenely lucrative pre-crash bonuses. Obama may have been a people’s president, but it wasn’t hard for his enemies to convince at least a portion of the millions who had lost their jobs, houses and life savings that he was part of the “globalist elite” — he was a star at Harvard Law School, after all. People were pissed. Even Obama’s supporters felt betrayed. Enter the Tea Party — part of the “populist” right that were conned by Trump into thinking he was on the side of the little people, while the Wall Street elites were out to screw them.
But there is a problem this time around. As T. Rump and Comp. ruin the regular economy with tariffs, tax breaks for the rich and endless corrupt schemes, they have driven up the national debt to completely unsustainable levels — and have no plan for paying it down other than to bring about a mythical “golden age” that currently, and forever will exist only in the minds of the President and his financial team.
So, as Scanion goes on to explain:
“The problem is that [after all these bailouts] the rescue infrastructure is exhausted. The Fed is trapped. Inflationary pressures mean that rate cuts, the most powerful tool in the monetary tool kit, could risk making things worse.“
“The problem isn’t just the war, or the energy crisis,” Scanion concludes, “or the debt levels, or the trapped Fed, or the fragility of the A.I. supply chain. It’s all of them simultaneously, potentially compounding one another, processed by a market that believes it will be saved.”
So now I understand. I was wrong. The investors aren’t stupid, exactly. After all, many of them went to Ivy League business schools. No, they’re not stupid. They are just a bunch of spoiled, greedy adolescents who see no reason to weigh risk against reward, or to act responsibly in any way whatsoever — and every reason to take one more shot as stuffing their insatiable gullets using other people’s money.
Cartoon characters indeed.
