This just illustrates that perfoamance on the stock market has nothing to do with the health of our economy. It's an emotion driven exercise by people buying and selling pieces of paper every day.
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The world only exists as an extension of the good old U S A.
How true ,however that is a problem.
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While natural to draw comparisons with things one knows, it is still nevertheless striking how much the comments below are "about us". It seems the world only exists as an extension of the "good old"USA.
‘Iran’s Economy Is Bleak. Its Stock Market Is Soaring.’ All you’d have to do is change one word in that headline––replace the word ‘Iran’ with ‘America’––and you’ve got the situation in the USA to a ‘T’. The top 1% of the US population own 43% of the nation’s wealth. 15% of the nation are considered poor. Hey! But who cares? The stock market is soaring.
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Growing up relatively poor in America I acquainted myself with all sorts in a youth spent in Queens & Middlesex NJ then rural- suburban GA. In doing so, a theme arose in my teens. Those with nicer, newer anything got up early for jobs and the most seemingly successful were employers themselves. Inspiration was free, opportunities to work abundant so long as I was willing to do anything legal for busy dinks/ yuppies, those willing to give an ambitious,honest youngster a chance. Cutting firewood & lawns, washing cars, painting house, landscaping and such gave cash and a sense of worth.
Buying stocks at an early age, 19 in my case, was a personal choice and a result of pulling oneself up. This is the story of millions in America and still can be true. Not so for most highly regulated and taxed countries. Having traveled the world extensively I’m assured that the freedom afforded one to be their own success is not limited to growing up in the USA but there are no countries this size with so much opportunity. ‘ How may I help you vs how can you (government) help me.
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Thouh stock market is never a correct pointer to the real health of a country's economy yet with its oil wealth and resourcefulness of its companies Iran is capable enough to weather through the US sanctions.
Every where stock markets are soaring, regardless of decreasing world economic activities, who become president, economic suffering from corona virus, too many tension over there and so on, the stock markets will perform very well.
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Whatever its troubles reaching the world market past US obstructions, Iran is inherently wealthy. It has oil and gas in huge quantities, a wealth of other minerals, a large and well educated population, and a well developed industrial base.
It is being held back, but that is artificial and temporary. The basics of wealth are there. At some point, they come bursting out, and the world will rush to do business with them, as it started to do just before the US yanked out the rug of the Iran Deal.
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"Death to America" has to end with regime change of behavior.
Iran only responds to power, so sanctions are helping to get its attention.
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@RP Or it just makes them more self-sufficient, improves their internal operations, concentrates loves for Iranian products while encouraging hatred of the tyranny of American imperialism.
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Good for Iran. I hope it continues and this news is great. All Americans should boycott these stupid sanctions.
On a side note, the NYTimes continued reference to imprisonment, support for authoritarian regimes ring hollow. Enough with the judgment. Open Iran to the world and those issues go by by.
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Poor economy, high stock market and a fascist government. They are just like us.
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Not trying to draw an equivalency between a suffering and struggling country such as Iran, and one engorged in wealth and capitalism such as the United States, but it is interesting that an extremely well performing stock market should conceal what is, in reality, mass poverty and disparity And so, perhaps, does the high performing US stock market. The octane fueling its seemingly incredible run has been bought and paid for by a perverse deficit of trillions that WE, the public, will be burdened with for decades to come. Contrarily, the actual beneficiaries are corporate welfare recipients who now receive upward flowing "hand outs" of massive wealth redistribution from a large swathe of our population, many of which inexplicably approve this Ponzi scheme. With 3% real wage growth minus 2% inflation, 2.5% cost of living expenses and health care costs bankrupting millions of hard working families, the stock market's "magic" is in fact, a fraud being hoisted on a gullible and under informed public. As to its actual *value* for most Americans, one must therefore ask: Is the US stock market any less a facade than its Iranian counterpart?
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@Ronsword You have it all wrong. A strong stock market indicates the local businesses are growing because they cannot import. That will create more manufacturing and related business operations (sales, marketing, delivery, raw materials) that will hire more people.
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David, perhaps you've missed my point. I'm saying that because a stock market looks good on paper, doesn't necessarily mean the underlying economy is good for all its citizens.
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Economy is bleak, stock market is great.
Sounds a lot like how I would describe the U.S. economy for the majority of us...
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Sanctions effect the working people, the wealthy and in Iran's case the military make money.The sanctions make America easier to blame for all the problems and strengthen the government.
Engage with iran, help the moderates build a unified group and fight the extremists. Redo the nuc deal, have discussions about more moderate deals for other problems.Engage, engage and make a partner not an enemy.
Trump needs them as a "monster" that he is saving us from. He cares nothing about a result only that they might help him get reelected.
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I studied economics at university level very many years ago. That was when people studied proper, sensible economics. Now, however, I feel that I don’t know the first thing about present day economics. All I was taught, based on the prevailing wisdom at the time, has been overturned. As a result, I feel that I need a new course on economics. It would be a primer, called in all probability, ‘Corrupt Economics 101 for the Current Era’!
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Iran is suffering from the same bleak trend that will eventually take down the world economy. The stock market is no longer an indicator of the functional health of our economy. We have reached another tipping point where the means for the wealthy to collect more money has pushed the wealth gap to the breaking point. That's why inflation is low. There's lots of money out there but it is being socked away in stocks and other equities. Investment in future growth has slowed because people don't have enough money to spend. The inflated stock market with low inflation is an indicator of economic malaise.
Get used to it because until trump and the republicans are defeated.
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@J.I.M. No, the stock market shows a growing local industry that will provide local jobs and perhaps get good enough to export and grow even more.
"World’s best performing stock market tends to be captured by nations with alarming proximity to calamity." In the case of the US, such a calamity would be the re-"election" of trump.
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Conventional wisdom uses the market as a proxy for the economy in general but stock markets reflect corporate earnings growth prospects and nothing else.
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@Ronin Yes, but if people with money project corporate earnings will grow, that's because they expect it will grow, and that growth will mean more jobs and more self control instead of relying on others for cheap stuff.
"Iran’s Economy Is Bleak. Its Stock Market Is Soaring."
Look at that just like America.
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The best is yet to come. I expect President Trump takes out the regime, like rocketing Solemani, but closer to election day Nov. 3. 2020.
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You wished…the mullah have always said, if the US started a fire, Iran will pour gasoline on it.
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There are some striking similarities between Iran’s economic woes and ours.
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@Ran
Lol not even close! Iran's GDP is 440 billion. The US GDP is 20 Trillion. Our unemployment is 3.6%, there's is 12%, and getting worse. There is no comparison.
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A lot like Venezuela---ordinary people are starving, while the rich are having a party.
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@Jonathan Katz That sounds like the USA or the UK then.
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Funny that after generations of fighting ‘the communists’ our current foe has a strong capitalist system that seems to be much more effective at adapting to aggressive American tactics. Neocons are always trying to portray Iran as weak, when they are in truth a very strong country.
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I am concerned that if he does not pay a large percentage of his
profit to authorities who control his business, he might find himself in the Evin Prison. I hope he and the rest of wonderful Iranians will
succeed and reach the level that they truly deserve.
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So-called "sanctions" often lead to a phenomena known as import substitution. If you can't import it, make it yourself. It's often surprising how successful this can be.
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It's somewhat similar to the US economy.
Our stock market is soaring on record consumer, national, credit card and student debt with an insane trade war.
The economy will crash, the only question is when and how bad as history has taught us.
The only difference is Iran's bleak situation is in reverse ie bad economy and then stock market extreme rise.
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@Paul ALL Capitalist economies will crash. It's built into the system. Creative destruction the economists call it.
BTW in the United States, the Federal Reserve has taken the position that any decline in the stock market would be bad for the economy so they keep intervening in the Repo market to keep interest rates artificially low in contradiction to allowing the free market to set the rate.
I would rather invest in Iran than in the United States at this point.
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@Paul So when President Trump crows about how well the stock market is performing, just remember that across the US manufacturing jobs are declining, people are working 2-3 gig jobs but are one paycheck away from financial disaster, debt is soaring, the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, the middle class is getting squeezed out of existence, and God only knows what the economic harm the corona virus will bring. But the stock market!!! I get it. I work for an investment firm so I appreciate the S & P 500. But everyday I ride the commuter bus home through downtown Atlanta and I'm seeing more and more homeless people lying on the sidewalk or living in tents under the I-75 bridge. Our economy is rotting from within and our shared values of decency and respect/ compassion for each other are under daily assault by our President and his corrupt or blind followers. I guess this is all part of "Keeping America Great. But the only red hat I will ever wear has a big black G on the front (for my beloved Dawgs). I voted for a lot of Republicans in the past but no more.
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@Volley Goodman An IMF economist was telling me the exact same thing just 2 days ago! the Fed intervention in bandaid on something about to explode. Never has a President interfered with the Federal reserve system so much.
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