The stock market exists to serve a real and important purpose. The market brings investors and their money together with companies who need capital. What the stock market is not, is a good barometer of the economic health of our nation. Yet, as we sit here today, we have evolved a media and political culture devoted to watching the stock market. A generation of market insiders have evolved along side, devoted to the premise of government-free operation, and committed to the notion of a government ready to attend to their every need. This boiling 
contradiction has so distorted our view, that we are blind to the real effects of our policy.
The history of the market is one of growth. Everything is predicated on the growth of individual prices and the market average. Growth equals profit, and the rewards for good behavior on the Street are very high indeed. Firms and the whiz kids they employ, make billions annually on transactions. There is no consequence for failure or benefit for success linked to the actual performance of companies in the real world. The billions available to the club on the Street can be had for those able to swing the deals and make the trades.