Stock Market Saw Worst Year Since 2008

I’m sure it’s fine.

And if it’s not fine, who cares? The important thing is stopping viruses and Russians. That’s what Americans care about.

Axios:

The stock market notched a fittingly downbeat end to its worst year since 2008 — and investors are nervous about the potential for another year of pain.

After dropping 0.3% on the final trading session of the year Friday, the S&P 500 finished 2022 down 19.4%.

It’s the seventh worst year for the index on records stretching back to 1929, according to FactSet data.

That means 2022 ranks with the ugliest years of the Great Depression, the 2008 financial crisis and the dot com bust in the annals of market massacres.

What makes this year even more painful for investors is the fact that bonds — which traditionally do well when the stock market suffers, and can cushion the blow — were also hammered in 2022.

The Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate — a broad benchmark for the American bond market — is down more than 12% in 2022, the worst showing in the history of the index. (Data goes back to the late 1970s.)

The simultaneous collapse of bond and stock prices can both be traced back to the same sources — inflation and the Fed.

And with the Fed expected to keep raising rates in 2023, investors fear the bad times may continue.

If inflation wasn’t proof enough that the government is purposefully trying to destroy the US economy, then raising rates absolutely seals the deal.

There is simply no reason that you would respond to this kind of an economy by raising rates, unless you are trying to do harm on purpose.

I’ve been through the details many times, but the bottom line is this: this is not the 1980s. You can’t stop this kind of inflation by simply raising rates a little bit. That is obscenely stupid if you believe it (but the people doing it do not believe it).

The solution was to keep the market strong and just stop printing so much money, allow the inflation to happen.

Of course, they caused the inflation, so obviously they were going to make it worse, and they did the exact thing that everyone knew would make it worse while pretending to be retarded.

This is going to be a rough year, economically. I can tell you that much.

Thankfully, we have other things to look forward to.