Sadly with banking allowed to gamble like pre-great depression, the stock market is so heavily influenced by them one must look at it as yet another manipulated indicator. Thus the low non-financial participation and strong support by the Federal Reserve which should focus on the economy but focuses on the market instead as it fails to raise rates the whole cycle until the very end.

One now asks if the Fed is creating a downturn on purpose. Good question? I tend to think even worse, they have no power to lift the market up more and are being forced to do whatever they can to brace for a downturn they've been artificially delaying for about 2 years now.

Paper gold and solver has always ballooned supply even though there is no physical supply. This has been around since its inception. This is also why some countries have demanded their gold back to their own countries and why it is taking them years to get it.

You are right there is not enough gold and silver to deliver to meet demand should any decent amount of paper get converted to actual physical metal. Sadly, most paper makes it physically impossible for most all to convert to physical and most paper gold and silver is run by the financial institutions shorting it. This has become much the same corrupt game that spelled the end for gold and silver backed currency. One must understand the game of corruption to really understand gold and silver pricing and the market. It has nothing to do with the physical supply and only has to do with the ability for the central bank and financial institutions shorting to control paper prices with artificial supply.

The Federal Reserve was asked why they hold gold. The real answer is in order to allow certain financial institutions to short it to the ground many times over what they have.

Gary, you are right, I am speaking more of the Greatest Generation, however they still fought the Vietnam and Cold war so I still give them cultural credit for having America lead the world against injustice instead of preaching isolationism and hate for its own allies.

Sadly there is now data indicating roughly 90% of the increase in the stock market is do to Federal Reserve manipulation which is unsustainable as the author points out. Regardless, people learn to copy what worked until it doesn't. That can lead to very bad results. Corporate earnings growth usually drives real stock appreciation. The fact that it is not is of grave concern not just because it signals the wheels are off the bus, but because capitalism itself is being driven into the ground by the central bank just like it is done in socialist countries.

What comes next is not what America was built on. Sadly Bernie Sanders and not Trump is more on the ball about what's eating at America. Who would have thought.

The Fed should have raised rates years ago. I agree they should raise rates now to stamp out their own will which is to cause inflation without realizing there is now inflation with no growth which is worse, not better than no growth with no inflation.

The baby boomers had to fight a war to prevent racism and tyranny. Americans today merely need to plug their nose and turn away from the bad entertainment of Trump. Hopefully this will be one of the new generations great proof that the moral and ethical integrity of the baby boomers who fought and won WWII still survives. WWII war veterans should be aghast that such blatant hate mongering has survived this long in American politics.

Congrats Fed. You stimulated inflation without treating the problem of low to no growth. All this does is hamper your ability to inject more money into the flailing economy. Inflation with low to no growth is a terrible thing, not a good thing as you implied. Now you must raise rates to fight off what you have caused lest it turn into something very nasty.

Sadly the real economy has been near a bear market for some time but is hidden by those claiming we should look at the stock market. The economy is the economy and it is still in bad shape and getting worse even though the Fed has repeatedly caused inflation no one can afford and says its good. Inflation in weak to no growth is bad not good. The Fed should read economics books rather than trying to solve economic dilemmas by treating the symptoms without treating the disease.

Inflation with low to no growth is deadly to the economy, not a godsend.

The real economy, especially minus the Fed's paper money make my friends rich games, has been in bad shape for some time now. The sad fact is the Fed has now stoked inflation and the economy continues to dredge to new lows. This implies Fed tightening and economic degradation and yet they say this is good. I think not.

Read real economic reports and not the unemployment filings the Fed wants you to focus on because it is easily manipulated and has been for years.

This downturn and bounce back shows just how badly you lose when you invest in mutual funds. Far many investors, they are still sporting big losses thanks to their financial advisors mutual fund centric advice designed to enrich none other than themselves at investors cost. Wake up folks. They are stealing money from your investments.