747
submitted 9 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] hark@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

The stock market is held aloft pretty much solely because of tech.

[-] zaphod@lemmy.ca 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I'll be honest, I don't understand your point.

What does the value of those company's stocks (which it's worth noting are rallying in response to those layoffs) have to do with my point that the underlying causes of the layoffs in tech cannot be extrapolated to the broader economy, and thus action in that sector should not be used as a proxy for overall economic health?

[-] hark@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

So much emphasis is placed on the stock market and yet the stock market is boosted to all-time highs thanks to a handful of tech companies. In fact, these handful of tech companies make up about 25% of the entire S&P 500 (not even counting the many other tech companies on the S&P 500 that aren't part of this handful). With how much the stock market is talked about as evidence that the economy is doing great, tech plays an oversized role. So if tech companies are being temporarily boosted by layoffs, what do you think comes after? The AI hype cycle will hit a slump and tech stocks will eat shit, as will the broad stock market because tech makes up so much of it. Then suddenly "the economy" ain't doing so great.

[-] zaphod@lemmy.ca 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

A lot of great speculation that has absolutely nothing to do with how the economy is doing right now, which is what I thought we were talking about.

Also, and I cannot emphasize this enough: the stock market is correlated with economic health but does not measure it directly. In the first half of 2023 the stock market was erratic due to rising interest rates while the real economy--measured by unemployment rates, salaries, etc--was quite healthy. Conversely, the post-2008 recovery was anemic at best for the non-rich while the stock market rallied to all time highs. There's a reason I've never once mentioned the stock market while making the case that the economy is healthy.

Put another way: your predicted future slump in tech stocks does not therefore mean the economy more broadly will suffer.

And that's assuming your prediction plays out, and that remains to be seen. After all, I'll bet you were predicting that Facebook is on the decline, and yet they announced a truly astonishing quarter.

And again, none of this is relevant to the state of the economy right now.

this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2024
747 points (94.5% liked)

politics

19089 readers
1055 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS