Actually, the stock market is the economy, and the majority of Americans DO own stocks

Even though the economy is not the stock market, the stock market is part of the economy. Whenever economists look at economic data, they don’t (nor should they) just ignore stock markets around the world. That would be cherry-picking data.

By the “stock market” most people mean the S&P 500 which compromises 500 large U.S. companies. I would say these companies actually are a representative sample of the total population of U.S. companies, but even if I grant that these 500 companies aren’t representative, we can look at the total U.S. stock market which compromises over 3500 companies. It’s not as if these companies exist in a bubble, and it’s not as if their profits/losses are somehow magically different than companies not listed on the public exchanges. Nevertheless, it would be hard to argue that these 500 companies aren’t a useful gauge of what’s going on in the economy, even though they aren’t a “perfect” measure.

The stock market is forward-looking, which means it’s a leading indicator of where the economy is going. It’s not the only indicator of the economy, but it is an indicator, nevertheless.

Complaining the stock market doesn’t show how much money Average Joe is making at his job is kind of like complaining that the Weatherman isn’t telling you what’s on T.V. tonight — it’s irrelevant and bizarre. It would be like complaining that waffles don’t taste like jelly beans; it would be like complaining that…