Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 05/2010

Wall Street Is Dancing Again

John H. Makin

October 2009

American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

Abstract

Wall Street is dancing again to the music of a sharp rise in stock prices. The question that remains is whether Main Street, currently languishing in a sad world of job losses, unavailable credit, and weakened balance sheets, will get to join the party. To put the question more precisely, will the "adverse feedback loop" that saw a financial collapse last fall that crushed the real economy work in reverse, so that a financial bounce boosts the real economy in coming quarters? The jury is still out on this important question.