LETTER: Cartoon missed the mark

With all due respect to the Review-Journal’s Michael Ramirez and his considerable talent, I must disagree with his Tuesday editorial cartoon “Taking stock.” The cartoon implies that holding stock and understanding economics are somehow related.

I have a degree in economics, and I don’t remember any of my professors mentioning the stock market even once. Why? Because it’s largely irrelevant to economics (other than maybe a measure of consumer psychology). The bond market, yes, because of its role in raising capital and its relationship to interest rates and investment. But much of the stock market is a semi-dignified crap shoot.

You buy something that basically has no inherent or intrinsic value, then hope to unload it on someone else down the line. (There are the rare cases where meaningful dividends are paid out.) Even when investing in an initial public offering the investor rarely gets anything other than a chance to unload it in the future at a profit.

And having stocks teaches economics no more than having a car teaches auto mechanics.