Why We Need a “Doug Jones” More Than a Dow Jones
On the Magnificent Seven and market myths.
The S&P 500 rose to new heights last week on the strength of the Magnificent Seven. No, that’s not the title of a new remake of a remake of a Spaghetti Western film. It’s the name coined by Bank of America analyst Michael Hartnett to label the seven tech companies—Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla—that make up over a quarter of the stock market’s total value, and that added a collective $5.1 trillion to the market last year.
In other words: The companies that were already making a lot of money are now making even more. For the average working American, the market’s ups and downs have little or no correlation to their lives—but they think it does, thanks in no small part to close and continuous media coverage.
Nearly 40 percent of Americans have no financial stake in the stock market. Among those households who do, most have only indirect investments through index funds and 401(k)s, which amount to a tiny slice of the total pie. And even for those with direct stockholdings, the average value of their investments is around $15,000—for comparison, the average American owes about $60,000 in debt.
The inequity doesn’t stop there. Americans with postgraduate degrees are twice as likely to hold stocks as high school grads. White Americans own a staggering 89 percent of stocks. And to echo a senator from Vermont, the wealthiest 1 percent now own more than half of all US stocks—a fact that both illustrates and perpetuates the gross wealth disparity in this country. A “bull” market, indeed.
Adding insult to injury, the value of the stock market sometimes reflects the exact inverse of the worker’s experience. Wins for labor, like unionization and wage growth, often sink stock values. The same goes for antitrust measures that keep prices competitive and hold companies accountable to consumers. After a judge blocked Spirit Airlines’ merger with JetBlue, the carrier’s shares dropped 20 percent. On the flip side, when the pandemic shuttered businesses and sent unemployment skyrocketing, the S&P 500 saw its best month of trading in 33 years.
And yet, thanks to the tenor of today’s stock market coverage, consumers still tend to conflate the market with the economy overall. The media—its members perhaps over-indexing on their own status in the stockholding elite—has perpetuated this fallacy. Share prices scroll endlessly on the nightly news, while analysts devote entire shows to evaluating stocks as though they were NBA draft prospects. But the truth is, Jim Cramer’s antics on Mad Money are at best irrelevant and at worst insulting to the millions of Americans who don’t have the money to spend on theatrical stock picks, and don’t have the time to watch a show that airs on their way home from work.
It’s past time to refocus our national attention from the fortunes of the 500 to the concerns of countless families living paycheck to paycheck.
Over 30 years ago, the firebrand progressive thinker and beloved Nation contributor Jim Hightower proposed replacing the Dow Jones Industrial Average with a better economic bellwether: the Doug Jones. (No relation to the former Alabama senator, though he certainly deserves economic prosperity.)
Jim’s tongue-in-cheek ticker tape recorded the fortunes of Doug Jones, the archetypical American worker: his job prospects threatened by factory closures, his grocery bill squeezed by inflation, his bank account burdened by high interest rates. It was, as Jim put it, “a real-life measure of ‘how ya doin’?”
Decades later, it’s more important than ever. Breathless coverage of the Magnificent Seven’s record-breaking growth stands in stark contrast to the ongoing economic pessimism of many Americans. The result is a sense of whiplash.
With voters thinking of their pocketbooks as they head to the polls this year, President Biden must sell his administration’s economic wins in terms that square with people’s experiences—by addressing the state of the Doug Jones. To his credit, he has already made real economic indicators a core part of his reelection message, touting low unemployment and slowing inflation. But Biden can do more both to take credit for his successes, including recent consumer protection victories, and to take ownership of issues like wage stagnation.
The media, too, has an important role to play in telling the story of everyday Americans’ economic reality. The tactics used to tout minute-by-minute stock performance would be better spent broadcasting the line items that show up in people’s budgets and bank accounts.
How about showing a live ticker tracking real wages? Or announcing a drop in egg prices with the same fanfare as a spike in Microsoft shares? Robert Reich could take over for Jim Cramer, smashing a celebratory buzzer every time another Starbucks unionizes.
And most importantly, for every report on how much growth we’re seeing, let’s examine who profits from that growth. An economy where everyone benefits—there’s nothing more magnificent than that.
Thank you for reading The Nation!
We hope you enjoyed the story you just read. It’s just one of many examples of incisive, deeply-reported journalism we publish—journalism that shifts the needle on important issues, uncovers malfeasance and corruption, and uplifts voices and perspectives that often go unheard in mainstream media. For nearly 160 years, The Nation has spoken truth to power and shone a light on issues that would otherwise be swept under the rug.
In a critical election year as well as a time of media austerity, independent journalism needs your continued support. The best way to do this is with a recurring donation. This month, we are asking readers like you who value truth and democracy to step up and support The Nation with a monthly contribution. We call these monthly donors Sustainers, a small but mighty group of supporters who ensure our team of writers, editors, and fact-checkers have the resources they need to report on breaking news, investigative feature stories that often take weeks or months to report, and much more.
There’s a lot to talk about in the coming months, from the presidential election and Supreme Court battles to the fight for bodily autonomy. We’ll cover all these issues and more, but this is only made possible with support from sustaining donors. Donate today—any amount you can spare each month is appreciated, even just the price of a cup of coffee.
The Nation does not bow to the interests of a corporate owner or advertisers—we answer only to readers like you who make our work possible. Set up a recurring donation today and ensure we can continue to hold the powerful accountable.
Thank you for your generosity.
More from The Nation
Fellow Freelancers: Don’t Marry Rich, Organize! Fellow Freelancers: Don’t Marry Rich, Organize!
The problem is systemic: Freelance life is underpaid. The solution must be systemic too.
The “Troublemakers” of the Labor Movement Gather in Chicago The “Troublemakers” of the Labor Movement Gather in Chicago
The Labor Notes conference explodes, with growing ranks of unionists, new organizers taking on goliaths like Amazon and Starbucks, and veterans invigorated by reform victories.
As Atrocities Unfold, Those Documenting Rights Violations Are Getting Laid Off As Atrocities Unfold, Those Documenting Rights Violations Are Getting Laid Off
Human Rights Watch just let go of 39 staffers. Workers are demanding executives take pay cuts instead
Nation Interview: Shawn Fain on Volkswagen and the UAW's Southern Strategy Nation Interview: Shawn Fain on Volkswagen and the UAW's Southern Strategy
“These companies are more profitable than the Big Three ever dreamed of being, and the workers are paid even less.”
Sam Bankman-Fried’s Hallucinations of Grandeur Sam Bankman-Fried’s Hallucinations of Grandeur
The former crypto mogul faces a 25-year sentence for his financial con game
LA’s Forgotten Strike LA’s Forgotten Strike
Hotel workers have been demanding fair wages and benefits for months—and owners are starting to cave.