Wall Street wasn’t paying much attention to Trump’s attacks on Canada and Mexico. We run some offshore factories there, but not in IMPORTANT industries. We only make appliances and parts of cars there. Nobody we know uses appliances or cars. Our illegal immigrant maids and drivers use those trivial things.
The IMPORTANT industries are the DESTRUCTIVE industries. Cloud computing and especially Sam Altman’s Holy AI. IMPORTANT products, products that steal and ruin and kill, are made in China. When China answered with countertariffs, Wall Street finally got pissed.
Not surprising. The stock market is the OPPOSITE of capitalism. Wall Street’s permanent mission is to abolish and obliterate every trace of capitalism and civilization.
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What is capital? Capital is money or property that serves to start or expand a PRODUCTIVE business.
Why do we have business? Because people are designed to be useful. Business is a natural way to balance work and payment. When business is functioning well, everyone is useful and everyone is rewarded for their work.
Before the Share Value coup in the ’80s, the stock market was a partial contributor to business, at least during the years when it wasn’t smashing business. Success was possible either way, and some of the steadiest successes started with old-fashioned forms of capital like investment by a few partners or borrowing from banks.
After the coup, the stock market stopped serving even a partial purpose. It’s all destructive.
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In autos, Ford vs GM forms a good controlled experiment.
Henry Ford HATED stocks and understood Wall Street accurately: As betting at the race ring adds neither strength nor speed to the horse, so the exchange of shares in the stock market adds no capital to business, no increase in the production and no purchasing power to the market. Ford was the BIGGEST auto company in the world for 20 years, until around 1930 when GM finally pulled out of the damage done by Wall Streeter Billy Durant. Ford never went bankrupt or crashed, because even after it joined the market in 1956 the Ford family remained in charge of its soul. A family member is still on the board now, still pulling the company toward Henry’s principles.
Billy was a stock trader by vocation who got into carriages and automobiles as a sideline. His mergers and trading nearly destroyed GM twice. When the board kicked him out for the second time he tried another auto company for a while then settled back into his natural role as a bettor and player. GM succeeded after DuPont bought a controlling part of its shares and operated it more like a privately held company.
In radio, Philco and Zenith competed head-to-head. Both were around the same size, both lasted into the 60s. Philco was privately held and proud of it, while Zenith was in the market. No clear advantage either way.
Polistra's Mill 