Let Them Eat Stocks

For 50 years – until Greenspan’s exuberance in the 90s – it took the average American around 26 hours to be able to afford to buy the S&P 500. In the Trumpian utopia in which we find ourselves now, however, the average American worker will have to work four times longer to join the ‘wealth-builders’ in equity market land.

The last time it cost this much (in terms of hours worked) to buy stocks, it seems the average American decided enough was enough and buyers went on strike asthe DotCom debacle collapsed.

h/t @jtepper2

Of course, we are reminded of Fed’s Dudley’s 2011 comments that seemed to suggest how lucky Americans were that iPad prices were falling..

During the Q&A, one audience member asked: “When was the last time, sir, that you went grocery shopping?” A stunned Dudley did not have the heart to elaborate that the caviar and ambrosia eaten on the Dudley family table is hand delivered through the Fed’s G-6 from Kamchatka, so instead, as Reuters reports, he “tried to explain how the Fed sees things: Yes, food prices may be rising, but at the same time, other prices are declining. The Fed looks at core inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy costs, to get a better sense of where inflation may actually be heading.”

So, Dudley sought an everyday example of a price that is falling.

“Today you can buy an iPad 2 that costs the same as an iPad 1 that is twice as powerful,” he said referring to Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) latest handheld tablet computer hitting stories on Friday.

“You have to look at the prices of all things,” he said.

This prompted guffaws and widespread murmuring from the audience, with one audience member calling the comment “tone deaf.”

As for the FTMFW comment from the audience, which apparently did not realize (unlike the prevailing thought at all other Dudley luncheons) that there is massive career risk in highlighting that the emperor is naked, has rolls of fat around his neck, and has a hairy ass, it was the following:

“I can’t eat an iPad,” another quipped.

“Let Them Eat Stocks” now seems to be the mantra of the new Fed.