One can't blame businesses for their actions. The Federal Reserve's low rates and QE have encouraged companies to not invest in capital equipment or save but rather run up debt and pay dividends and buy back stock shares. Companies have grown by buying up competitors and eating small businesses rather than trying to grow organically in a zombie economy. This is why the S&P is up even though the economy isn't growing significantly. Like a zombie, we are eating each other rather than growing the economy.

It is not greed driving the market, but rather a poorly managed economy that is separating from economic fundamentals as we speak thanks to the Federal Reserve's obsession with a socialist, managed economy tools.

The market so far has been being driven by rational exuberance by the irrational actions of the Federal Reserve as they engaged in late cycle low interest rates and topped it off with late market QE. The market players are acting on this which has justified the run up.

The Federal Reserve warning against irrational exuberance is like the the pilot blaming the passengers for flying too fast. If there is any further rush towards stock run ups it's because of the Federal Reserve's inability to cut QE or raise interest rates substantially which my by itself create a very nasty recession when we hit the end of the extended market cycle and they know it.

Low volatility does create potential new highs but there is risk of a pullback simply through a reversal of the low volatility like the author points out. It gets dangerous here but may be equally rewarding. It's great for churners but not necessarily for regular investors. I'd take some less volatile and more passive holdings and not just chase me too stocks like Google and Facebook from here on out. You may miss some gains but if you do acquire more here, make sure you are fast enough to pull the trigger and sell if you need to on a downturn.

The VIX will not cause it, however, whatever causes the VIX to spike to massive losses for shorters will have so many side effects we will be looking at a major downturn. It will be interesting to see if the Vix catches the downturn event before it responds suddenly and horrifically.

Hopefully, this will be just a test and not a drop. US dollar weakness is good for exports but a continuously weak dollar will bring problems to the US and eventually inflation. With growth so low any major commodities inflation could throw us into stagflation rapidly.

I agree with the author that the potential for volatility is rising. That said, I think oil prices will remain relatively stable in the short run until something occurs to set re-balancing. This is becoming more a straight up gamble than anything else.

Salesforce is cutting it up as they continue to extend into the market and are doing well working with others to tie in with them. The valuation is high as it has been, but companies growing in this zombie market are all highly valued. The interesting thing is I don't see growth slowing for them anytime soon.

Green energy is still growing. It is a good time to buy green energy that can survive this, especially ones that need no subsidies to survive. Look for ones that are growing and can make a profit or have enough cash.

Very good results and very interesting. Is Walmart a awakened giant in the online marketplace? We will see.

It is nice you brought up the electric use. It is a terrible waste of electricity and processing power and will only get more expensive over time. Why not issue money that allots x amount of processing power or electricity annually. Commodity currency anyone?