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The stock market is not the economy

As our lawmakers debate yet another massive stimulus bill, the stock market does its thing. It overreacts.

Three Reasons Stocks Are Rising [The Atlantic] – “A common answer to that question is that “the stock market is not the economy.” This observation is very popular, technically true, and often useless. Furniture sales, food service employment, and average home values in Idaho aren’t the whole economy either, because the economy is a machine of many parts. By comparison, people don’t go around screaming “My neck is not my body!” as if it means something. Your neck is a part of your body, and the stock market is a part of the economy; in both cases, if the former is acting in an irregular way, it’s probably worth looking into.”

Something you may be pondering in this Groundhog’s Day type of world we’re inhabiting:

What to Do When Work Feels Meaningless [Harvard Business Review] – “In dire times, it’s natural to question the meaningfulness of your work. When your world is shaken by a massive disruption, your job may seem insignificant and even pointless. On the other hand, crises can also heighten feelings of purpose and connection — something we saw in studying the response to 9/11 in New York and to the 2003 SARS outbreak in Toronto. As one ICU director who lived through that outbreak told us, “I felt something important could happen at any minute and that I had to be at work.” An ICU nurse recalled: “There was a sense that if we don’t lock this down, nobody will. We were the few. A lot of people bonded in unusual ways.” Crises lead many people to find deep value in their jobs, develop professionally, and grow personally.”

Do you think this is true?

You Can Be Anyone You Want To Be In 5 Years Or Less [Addicted to ROI] – “I was lucky enough to have found Keller Williams Realty, which has been awarded the top training company across all industries numerous times. My goal was to close on a transaction every month in my first year, that would have me earning more than I had been working full-time. Plus, one deal a month for a new agent was the expectation that was set for me by the office, that was until I met Anna.

The office assigned us a mentor, an agent who would show us the ropes and help us fine-tune our skills. I vividly remember the day I stopped by Anna’s office and saw a calendar of sorts on her wall. It read “I close four transactions every month” and she was tracking her business on a weekly basis. She was consistently closing 4 transactions every month and crushing it.”

A Security Breach Exposed More Than One Million DNA Profiles On A Major Genealogy Database [Buzzfeed News] – “First GEDmatch, the DNA database that helped identify the Golden State Killer, was hacked. Then email addresses from its users were used in a phishing attack on another leading genealogy site.”

What’s scary about stealing DNA data is that unlike credit card numbers or passwords or other information, you can’t change DNA. You can change your username and passwords, you can freeze your credit report, and you can move – but your DNA is your DNA.

Enjoy the weekend and J.D. returns as your friendly neighborhood money guide on Monday!