30 trillion dollars in pet rocks

TPM: News Pages | Talking Points Memo | TOPWRAP 3-More economic pain seen in 2009, but some hope too: "For all markets, the damage was probably much worse. The World Federation of Exchanges, which tracks stock markets in 53 developed and emerging economies, said some $30 trillion in market value evaporated through to the end of November."

What have we not learned from Adam Smith and JS Mill? They taught that capital, not money, was the important measure of an economy. BUT, their idea of capital was investment in productive enterprises. The amazing thing about the current balloon is that the enterprises and their markets have not changed! What has changed is the ability of hedge funds and their ilk to create money, money that has no connection to any productivity. This bubble has nto pburst, it never existed. that money wasa afcition .. as valuable as the deprciation on the new Ferrari I bought a week ago or the 3.5 million dollar house next to ours .. ahouse that can not be sold..