borderline miraculous

.. loaves ...

  .. and ...

    .. fishes, sort of

-=*=-

'The market' (= global stock markets, emphasise 's') has recovered, seemingly everywhere synchronised, reportedly based on a *non*-event, namely that 'the Fed' has committed to *not* changing its %-rate regime, and *not* embarking on a QE3 = printing ever more $s.

I've often suspected that the stock market is hardly more than a casino, and that reports attempting to explain its ups and downs were largely invented. Ho, hum; what about this spectacular 'market' recovery?

Even if it was a herd phenomenon, how did the herd synchronise?

Were the squillions of individual 'investors' (= punters) all just sitting around listening to their trannies, and then the signal of the Fed's non-event come through, and they all flipped from their panic/funk-sell mood into rabid buyers?

Mind you, optimism is under a bit of stress lately, due to lower than expected GDP growth, lower than expected employment = lower than expected demand, etc., but since the corporations are reporting profit growth and the wealthy are getting visibly even more wealthy, globalisation + neoliberalism are reducing the wages share by design (proof = otherwise the corporations wouldn't be doing it), it cant be too many 'workers' stimulating the stock market, or even able to buy much beyond basic food.

In the middle of this doom & gloom scenario, with stock-prices falling as much as 5% or so per day - suddenly a non-event triggers a buying spree everywhere. Talk about irrational exuberance.

Beats me. But then, I'm not a punter.