The US economy has become so "financialized" that there is little or no connection between the profits of Wall Street speculators and domestic production of material (or intellectual) goods and services. "Finance" used to exist in order to pay for production. In a global market where production is outsourced overseas, US finance is a stand-alone entity where a very small number of people make a lot of money by moving paper around (i.e. futures trading, shorting currencies) with no economic growth in any other sector.
Right on! The Stock Market used to be where Americans could invest their savings in the businesses in our country. To provide them the capital they need and to share in the resulting profits. But ALL OF THAT is in the past. The Stock Market has “evolved” into a Casino with all the “instruments” the “players” have created to bastardize the basic concept. I haven’t owned one share of stock since 2007 when “the market” took 30% of my retirement. Thanks to these crooked a$$holes at places like Morgan Stanley (the firm that f*cked me out of my life’s savings), I still have to earn a living managing commercial property that I would have sold long ago if I hadn’t needed the income.