Kicking ass..............from Rico

To most people, it sure LOOKS like the DJIA is kicking ass. BUT, it isn't so.

Setting aside the question of the huge amounts of funny money being printed by the Fed being the real cause for the equity markets moving upward, there is a little 'trick' or 'game' our government is playing on us...and it usually works, because the average Joe cannot figure out currency exchange rates and doesn't have a clue what a 'shrinking' dollar means.

Our drunken sailor spendthrift Uncle Sammy counts on this, and why not? It's always worked for him in the past.
- This is SO slick! While people 'think' they are kicking ass, they are the ones getting...er, kicked in the ass instead.

The drop in the value/purchasing power of the dollar 'inflates' the apparent value of the DJIA. If you are using Euros or most other currencies, you're not really seeing this market rally as being quite as LARGE as it seems in dollars. Respectable, but not as valuable as it seems using funny money to denominate it.
- Bear in mind that as the Zimbabwe dollar collapsed, the Zimbabwe stock market appeared to simultaneously skyrocket. Now both the Z$ and the Z-market are worthless. I have a 100-trillion Z$ note on my wall as a reminder of this...pretty engraving and ink, but worthless save as a reminder of what idiotic governmental ecoonomic policy (guided by experts that are "too smart to be right") can do for you.