MondayJul20,2020at12:01AM

I read with amusement, my old college textbook author and esteemed old-school economist, Robert J. Samuelsons column (July 12) "The FOMO stock market."

His apparent search to answer the why of the big gap between the stock markets perplexing ascension and the economys uncertain future during the pandemic seems to have missed the obvious: The stock market is rigged. PE ratios, conflicting unemployment indices, Shiller analytics, nor the psychological FOMO syndrome answer his perfunctory query. Because deep down, Prof. Samuelson knows the answer: The jig is up.

Wall Street and its marginal players fear not the perilous and prolonged economic rough patch staring us all in the face, because they know that both the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve have removed any risk from their investment gambles. With interest rates at zero for as far as the eye can see, PPP grants, trillions in loans and the adding of billions of junk-like corporate bonds to the Feds burgeoning balance sheet, capitalisms referee (the U.S. government) has all but rigged the dice, put its big thumb on the scales and fundamentally socialized all their potential losses. Market exuberance indeed!

Wall Street capitalism is dead! Long-live the New American capitalism!

William D. Chalmers, Eugene

Read the original:

The jig is up - Opinion - The Register-Guard