I have no idea how while Trump is a) ripping out the underpinnings of constitutional law which, in turn, is all that holds up all other laws (including transactional) in the US AND b) ripping apart the post war Western defense alliance leaving Europe and Australia completely exposed and vulnerable AND c) going to impose global reciprocal tariffs, which are going to kill trade and plunge the country and the world into the greatest economic depression (coincidentally) since the 1930’s, how the market isn’t down 75% - 90% by this point. Hopes & Dreams? Hallucinogens? Heroin?
What power on earth is allowing Hedge Funds, Banks and Small Investors the justification to keep betting on an underlying business system which is literally being pulled apart at the seams with no real hope of being functional shortly. How is this happening. It’s like I’m taking crazy pills every day. The market should look at what Trump’s already done (much less what he still promises to do) and say, whoop that’s us, we’re audi, this is insane, we can’t trade our value as a corporation any longer, we don’t know where supplies, labor, administration, distribution, sales, or any law governing any of it stands, we have to pull all our monies out, and put them someplace safe like our pockets.
What is happening to keep the market propped up, when literally everything, everywhere that it needs for stability in projected earnings is being hollowed out beneath it?
edit 2/20 : lol edit 2/21: lol
I keep asking myself this same question as I stare at my retirement savings in what seems like trump’s crosshairs. I only have a few possible answers, and none of them are enough to explain the continued high valuations.
The only things i know are: “the market is irrational” and “time in the market beats timing the market”. How long before the crash occurs? How much gains are lost if I pull it out too early? Days? Years? Even if I were to pull everything out now, when would I know its safe to put it back in? Would I accurately be able to determine the bottom of the market and magically put it all back in to reap the spoils? If the damage trump does to our country destroys the value of the dollar, then even having pulled everything to cash would mean it would be in (at that time) worthless US Dollars.
I’m simply not that smart to execute that successfully and I don’t pretend to be.
The “full faith and credit of the united states government” as expressed and guaranteed in American dollars, is probably pretty safe for a while at least, as most of the world’s nations economies still base their own currency on the us dollar, but that’s going to unravel at some point sooner than later i imagine
February 10, 2025 quotes from the article:
Trump says some Treasury payments might ‘not count’
“We’re even looking at Treasuries,” Trump said. “There could be a problem - you’ve been reading about that, with Treasuries and that could be an interesting problem.”
source
If trump decides to not pay on US Treasury Bills even ONE TIME, that’s the whole ball game. The indestructible, ever-present, no-safer-investment-literally-anywhere-in-the-world is gone forever. The USA is able to be the nation it is because we are allowed to borrow money from the rest of the entire world and unbelievably low interest rates. If we’re forced to pay higher rates on our T-bills because we aren’t trustworthy anymore we will immediately drown in our $36.22 trillion national debt.
Maybe part of the plan is to own the debt owed by the US, and then just break assets off as “compensation”. It’s like a thin veneer of capitalism and deregulation being spread over what happened to the assets of the USSR when it fell in the early 90s.
And yes, that’s a pointed parallel: I do sincerely believe we’re looking at the beginning of the real fall of America as a contiguous country and meaningful world power. I say that as an American.
Pretty sure that’s the goal tbh. It’s like how these techbros crash a business and walk off with all the assets. They’re trying on countries now.
Other countries starting to set up trade relationships not based on the dollar - now that’s a threat to the stilts propping up the American economy, for sure. Tariffs as well though I think many don’t believe they are truly going to materialize as threatened. When you say “gestures at everything,” what actually are the main things that you think should be sinking the economy as a whole? DOGE bullshit, federal agency heads resigning, DEI programs being cancelled, betraying Gaza and Ukraine… it’s all bad but most of it does not seem an immediate existential economic threat. What am I missing?
Hmm I dunno, but maybe it is time to diversify. Into euros, yens, and probably yuans. How do you think?
first off, your trading account is in some financial institution that might itself shatter. without a federal rescue boat to save the little people. second, if the us economy actually collapses 80+%, nowhere else is safe. the european union and japan couldnt fend for itself without the current power balance holding firm. china is in a terrible state itself already. no easy answers.
Yeah, trading account needs some caution, indeed. If nowhere else is safe… I guess the answer is the real gold? That’s quite difficult. Do you think 80% collapse would come? That’s gotta be quite wild, I was more thinking of general market crash.
if you knew the correct timing/scale/scope you could be crazy rich from it all. nobody knows, even those causing it. personally ive been out of the stock market for 5 years expecting a crash and it hasnt happened yet.
Gold will not hold value if the market crashes like that. Food, water, and land will be what holds value.