OK, I'm a bit confused by some of the news reports that I've been reading over the past few days. Is it just my imagination, or have I been reading that stock markets, particularly those based in the United States are now experiencing record high volumes once again? This is awfully confusing to me, as you can probably imagine from all the times in the past that I have told you all how much the stock market baffles me. My question is, when are we, as Christian American taxpayers and consumers, going to start feeling some of the role over benefits of this bustling market? For that matter, what kinds of things can typical Americans expect to see in their daily lives when stocks are doing well? I mean, we all know pretty much what happens when stocks crash...well besides everyone acting all crazy and equating the potential for economic failure to the next Armageddon. We know that when stock slump, everything goes a little bit crazy financially around the country, but do we ever see the positive side of things? Do we get any kind of tangible reward when things start to go well? I know that I've only been around on this green Earth for twenty-six years, and for the majority of that twenty-six years, I haven't really given two hoots about finances or the stock market, but now I'm getting pretty curious. Is it that we, as Americans, are just supposed to be happy with what we've grown accustomed to, rather than expect that something "better" will result from a strong showing in the stock market? I think that I'm going to have to search around the internet for some more information on past trends in the stock market...at least past positive trends. Maybe I'll even try to find one of those Yahoo chat rooms that has something to do with business, stocks, and the economy. Surely there are other amateur investors or even curious taxpayers who have the same types of questions that I do about this subject. Heaven forbid that I end up stopping by Wall Street the next time I head to New York City to see how things are really done. I suppose that, for now, I'm just going to have to keep myself as educated as I can be on the situation and keep reading what news that I can find on it. After all, that's really the only way that most Americans find out information relevant to the subject on a daily basis, right? Oh wow, what if it's some kind of government conspiracy...not that I would put that past our current government. Hehe...I'm just playing...conspiracy theories don't ever really work out. They just get people worked up for no reason about a situation that they are just ignorant about in the first place. On the other hand, I do think that it is our right as Americans to know what is really going on with the financial standing of the country, whether it's good or it's bad. We are putting our hard-earned money into the companies that are selling their stocks to the investors that we're hearing about in the news...therefore it's all circular, right? We're all connected to one another, at least financially, on account of our citizenship. I'm sure it's not quite like that in other countries around the world, but I sure that some semblance of this type of financial interconnectivity has to at least theoretically exist in the great United States. What do you think? Do you agree with all this? Do you know anything about this financial consequences, etc. that I've been talking about? I'm really interested to know more, but I haven't had the chance to go digging for the answers to my questions. Feel free, as always, to give me a holler with any questions or comments that you might have simply by adding a comment to any of my posts.