There are plenty of people who contributed to the sad state of our economy. But when it comes to bad decision making, these seven folks arguably deserve the bulk of the blame. (Want to add to this hall of shame? Follow the e-mail link at the end of this gallery.)

We do not have a stock market. We have a commodities market for stocks. Fundamentals that govern stock buy/sell decisions are irrelevant to a commodities market which deals in supply/demand. Tell me the last time anyone was interested in how much of a dividend a company will pay. People are only interested in leveraged buys and making fractional profits when they sell. Stocks are strictly a short-term commodity these days.

Earnings or the economic numbers do not drive the stock market. Here is a study that shows earnings do not predict the market direction:

http://www.tradingstocks.net/html/earnings_drive_stocks.html

The market goes up because the social mood turns positive. This change first gets reflected in the stock market because it is very easy to buy and sell. And it gets reflected in the economy later. Here is a discussion of social mood changes and it's effect on the stock market and the economy:

http://www.tradingstocks.net/html/socionomics.html

Market up because the dollar is down, period. As soon as the dollar found support and rebounded the market turned down that very day. All the money these Administrations printed is creating inflation (not real economic output) which will lead to hyper-inflation in the coming years. These banks who normally compete for money in the open market are getting it delivered from the US Mint by the truck load. Should come to no surprise to anyone that if you gave me say...Viagra (money) for free then I could sell it and make a HUGE profit. I mean there is a waiting and begging market for money out there just like old limp penises. Those who haven't entered the markets by the time this event happens will be really upset as it will quickly the erode the REAL value of the dollars hidden under the matrasses.

There is no viable reason for the Dow being 10,000. The reason is that we have done little to pass regulations to stop the speculation in the financial markets. It is still stuck in the Finance Committee in Washington. In the meantime, we are building another, smaller bubble that is going to burst come 1Q2010, after retail sales from the holidays show the worst numbers in history. Well, duh, unemployment is probably closer to 15%, between those that have stopped looking for jobs and those that are 'under-employed' it is closer to 20%. Once those numbers hit, the Dow will plummet again. Time to pass real legislation and take speculation out of the market. That is the only way you are going to keep from a meltdown like this from happening again. Start learning from mistakes and quit repeating them over and over again.

Take speculation out of the market ???

The market by its very definition is speculative.

I think that the primary problem here is consumers' lack of consuming. People in today's economy are scared to buy things that aren't completely necessary, and if consumers do choose to purchase some luxury (in this context, anything outside of necessity), the consumers will choose the cheapest alternative available. Unfortunately, most American made products are not the cheapest alternative. Even if the cheaper alternative comes from an American based company, as the article above states, these American based companies are becoming increasingly globalized, which means the product might not have anything American about it except for the brand name. Because these American consumers are becoming so picky, American based companies are becoming more dependent on non-American consumers. Given this situation the American-based companies are becoming even more globalized than before. Thus, these companies are getting caught in sort of a catch 22.
But, this is not the only catch 22 that exists. American companies have a more expensive product because of the expensive labor that exists in America. Yet, the minimum wage is being raised because American consumers can't afford to buy the expensive products that are being produced by companies like the one that they work for. I am not sure what should be done about this but someone must act soo to prevent our country from continuing this downward spiral.

This shows that those day traders, and stock holders no longer depend on Americans working due to us manufacturing very little. We buy good that we used to make from other countries. We ship our jobs overseas so big business can make even more profit for the shareholders. Business make profits yet still layoff and and send more jobs overseas so they make even more profit. While good for the shareholders, it killing the middle-class which we are seeing the impact off, yet those at the top remain untouched.

Was a time when a company did well, keep you employed, now days they do well and still let you go if that will raise the value of the stock.

The rich control the market, the 401k's are for suckers we now find out, while day traders keep the market going up and down in stead of letting their money ride, like the old days, now the market goes way, the next day they are selling their stocks for profit, while the 401k's just sit their unable to do much but hope for the best.

America's greed will be it's downfall unless we get back to moral and ethical behavior. Create jobs, that give the middle class money to spend....so dam simple..yet so out of reach now days.

Where does this end.

I fear the optimistic stock market is a sign of more financial shenanigans going on.

The stock market is up because the large banks that received money from the Fed put it into the stock market instead of loaning the money out. That's why Volcker wants a clear separation between banks and investment firms. At one point in our history, banks could not invest, now they can, and that's what they did with the bailout money. Every investor knows that the time to make a killing is when stock values are low. So that is what the banks did, though there's no way to prove it one way or the other since there is no requirement that banks report how they spent the TARP money, thanks to Paulson. The whole thing is a fiasco.

Umm, it is called a bubble. Have we learned nothing? Where do you think those trillions of dollars the Fed is giving banks is going? Also, foreign entities no longer trust US treasuries and so put money into stocks instead.

There is no growth, the GDP figure is a total sham.

God that explanation just SUCKS! I'd rather bring back Smoot Hawley and bring down the rest of the world's economy with us than make a living delivering pizza while the Chinese and Indians watch what should have been MY big screen TV.

The simple answer to the question posed by the headline is that there is a huge global glut of capital, brought about by years of outsize gains going to the very top. The U.S. had a very unhealthy redistribution upward under Bush (i.e. the top 0.5% got the lion's share), but the trend predated Bush.

When that happens, the few beneficiaries are flush with dollars they don't need for living expenses and will try to earn more dollars with them. They can do that in any number of ways, only some of which are socially beneficial. But there's a severe SHORTAGE of viable places to generate good and sustainable return, due in no small part to consumers being so severely strapped. So the money starts bubbles in lieu of sustainable growth.

Until the middle and bottom get a fairer share of the economy and we start rewarding hard work again, we'll have the same frozen-up situation we had 100 years ago and most Latin economies have had to this day. We need to reverse the decline of the middle class and solve longstanding problems in health care, energy and education. Otherwise growth will have a ceiling at a very low level.

Wall Street playing "keep away" from the real economy. The tax code with low tax rates for capital gains compare to taxes on wages, 401k plan, Roth IRA's misdirects the free flow of money in the economy. The stock market is economicly over valued because of artificial demand created by the tax code. Manipulation of supply and demand can create the illusion of wealth. The baby boomers are contributing to their tax free retirement account creates artificial demand. When the baby boomers go to full retirement, the demand/supply ratio will flip and the stockmarket will collapse. Wall Street is a economic tool that was never entended to provide for the retirement of the middle class . It is the play ground for the rich that don't need 100% of their stock porfolio for their retirement. The rich could let their money ride and with draw a little here and there. The tax code allows the rich access to the reitement accounts of the working class.

After the stock market crash of 1929 and WW2 ended, our grandparents' generation instated the 70-94% tax brackets for ALL income. The result? It contained Wall Street greed, paid off the war debt and created prosperity for the majority of Americans for decades afterward. Then President Kennedy started dropping the top tax bracket down, then Reagan, and the national debt skyrocketed in proportion to the tax cuts. The majority of taxes were shifted from the wealthy and corporations to the middle class in the 1980's, causing women to enter the workforce out of necessity as men's wages dropped from the 1970's to the present. Today, we need to bring back those upper income tax brackets and restore this country to what it was after WW2. Unconstrained Wall Street greed is America's #1 problem right now. Where is our Ferdinand Pecora?