WSJ column by Andy Kessler, The Design Economy, posits that perhaps the stock market knows how the economy works better than we do as it zips past the behavior models we expect it to conform to.
Perhaps here's how the world works these days. No need to borrow billions and build big ethylene plants anymore. You invent something here (chip, movie, iPod, medicine, financial instrument), email the design overseas for manufacture in $1-an-hour factories (OK, not financial stuff), and then ship it back for consumption. Sure, this runs up trade deficits, and our precious dollars leave the country, but that's only half the story. Those dollars come back and invest in the U.S. Most go into long bonds, 10-years and 30-years. That's why Alan Greenspan left with a puzzled look on his face. Foreign buying is keeping long rates low; the yield curve is flat.
