By Michael Baron Original is here
NEW YORK (TheStreet) — The U.S. stock market’s climb this year back above its 2008 pre-financial crisis levels boils down to a simple equation: quantitative easing trumps unemployment.
Or in not quite linear apples-to-oranges mathematical terms, $600 billion is greater than 15.1 million.
The $600 billion figure represents the amount the Federal Reserve is pumping into the system via “QE2” — its ongoing second stimulus program to purchase long-term Treasury securities at a rate of around $75 billion per month through the second quarter of 2011.
While the market dipped initially after the details of “QE2” were announced on Nov. 3, the march of stocks off their July 1 lows of the year was mostly fueled by the expectation that the Fed would step in and do something if lackluster economic data continued to pile up. Continue reading 2010 Stock Market: ‘QE2’ Trumps Lack of Jobs