US stock market loses $5 trillion in value as Trump plows ahead on tariffs

More or less, although it's important, that it still very much is a medium of power, as its role as financial capital and/or in national budgets ultimately decides which projects and actions are allowed to exist and go through and which aren't

At some level its a scoreboard, sure. But at a much more important level, it is a claim on future consumption. Currency and credit consolidated in the hands of a tiny minority create a de facto oligarchy. Corporate industry decides national policy entirely from within board rooms and on billionaire chat groups devoid of democratic participation or oversight.

If it was just a high score or a championship ring, the consequences would be far less severe. But imagine a football team that - upon winning the Super Bowl - got automatic first pick on every draft-eligible college student. That's the real danger of this wealth consolidation. It puts businesses in a position such that they can greedily gobble up the most valuable resources, entirely for the purpose of over-performing into the next season and maintaining their lock on championship title indefinitely.

And then imagine of the city that hosts the Super Bowl gets a "Hunger Games" style socio-economic dividend, affording them a quality of life that radically outstrips their neighbors. And then we run this cycle quarterly for a solid century.

i think the commenter is just baffled at how drastically overvalued (over hyped) so many stocks are - a well known problem where speculative over investment can and does distort the whole economy and has power over the whole population. see for example, speculation bubbles like the dotcom overvaluation or subprime mortgages, or Theranos, or Bitcoin, or even how Tesla stock was being traded higher than the next 6-8 major car companies combined.

in other words, stock prices are a bunch of bullshit.

stocks arent exactly the same as "money" in the common sense so it confuses people when headlines say money was lost or wiped out. but stocks are similar to money in that they are placeholders for value, however much more susceptible to wild devaluations. because ultimately they're just speculative bets on what something is worth and can fluctuate rapidly, as rapidly and suddenly as human emotions.

Basically, it was just that surface level observation. But in our intuitive minds, we sometimes forget, that money there doesn't behave a medium of exchange like how we use it as common proles. In politics and finance, it's a means of power and decisions, instead.

just a surface observation, ya know?

Does it need to be more?

Nothing will stop them from gathering up all the low price shares.

It's a banana, Michael, what could it cost, $10??