By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: July 8, 2021 ~

Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the jury. You are tasked with the grave undertaking of deciding if the U.S. stock market is mentally fit to function as a barometer of the health of the U.S. economy and a gauge of the well-being of the nation in general. We will introduce evidence showing that on January 6, 2021, as a violent mob of thousands overtook police and seized control of the United States Capitol building around 2 p.m., the Dow Jones Industrial Average set a new intraday high of 31,022.65. And as the grisly scenes of rioting and mayhem continued to play out on every news channel in the United States, the Dow gave up very little of its huge gains on that day, closing at 4 p.m. with a gain of 437.80 points.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, this was the first time in 207 years that our nation’s Capitol was under a large-scale attack and the first time in history that the attack was playing out in real time on television, and yet the U.S. stock market found it to be happy news to rally around.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we will also introduce evidence showing that the mood of the stock market can flip on a dime for no apparent reason – like that of a mentally unstable person. Over the last few years, these sudden reversals have become the norm, rather than the exception. Just yesterday, the Dow had fallen sharply from the opening bell at 9:30 a.m. and then at 10:44 a.m. it reversed course suddenly and began a sharp upward move.

On other days, the Dow can appear to be completely psychotic, like this chart from October 13, 2020.

We will provide compelling evidence that the stock market no longer reflects the moral values of the American people and may have, in fact, become criminally inclined. For example, we will introduce a chart showing that the stock price of the largest bank in the United States, JPMorgan Chase, has outperformed the Standard and Poor 500 since January 7, 2014 despite achieving a criminal history unparalleled in U.S. banking history. The date of January 7, 2014 is when JPMorgan Chase was hit with two felony counts by the U.S. Department of Justice for its role in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. The bank received another felony count on May 20, 2015 for its role in rigging foreign exchange markets. On September 29, 2020, the bank received another two felony counts – one for rigging the U.S. Treasury market and another for rigging the precious metals market. It is unprecedented in U.S. history for a money center bank to survive five felony counts, let alone outperform the S&P 500 at the same time. The bank admitted to all five felony counts.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, it is our sincere hope that you will find the defendant, the U.S. stock market, unfit to lead this country forward as it is currently structured and find in favor of serious and meaningful reform. Thank you very much.

Update: This article was updated at 4:39 p.m. on July 8, 2021 to add the words “large-scale” in the second paragraph. Small terrorist groups have gained access to the Capitol in the past.