A Little Sagacity on "The Markets"

CBD over at Ace's Place makes a valuable contribution to the discussion about the "stock market" and  TehTariffs.

...a more accurate picture of the state of the financial markets should include more than one index. And there are others besides the ones I have mentioned. And because these indexes are plain numbers, it is important that the percentage change is taken into account, rather than the raw change.

October 19th, 1987 saw the Dow drop by 508 points. That doesn't sound so bad, but it was 22.6%... the greatest one-day drop in history. The worst day last week isn't even in the top 20 worst days in history.

I'm not trying to paint a rosy picture of the economy, because the shift toward a tariff-driven trade policy is going to have its downsides, which will be reflected in the stock markets, hopefully just in the short term. It will also have significant upsides in American employment, international trade, and a more rational approach to the national security needs of raw materials and manufactured products.

The problem with our ignorant, biased, and lazy media is that they report the most shocking data, and don't bother with seemingly simple things like percentages vs. raw numbers, historical context, or the difference between the Russell 2000 and the Dow! Why? Well, they are "journalists," which is a placeholder for "mis-educated, innumerate, lazy leftists."

Anyone care to bet that 50% of the "journalists who have confidently pontificated about the financial markets the last several days can't tell you what the Russell 2000 is (it's a sucker bet)?...

He also gives you a very nice outline of the various averages and their contents.