7 Charts That Prove That The Stock Market Has Become Completely Divorced From RealityMichael Snyder The only reason that stock prices have been climbing so much is because the Federal Reserve has been flooding the financial system with hundreds of billions of dollars that it has created out of thin air. The Fed has created an artificial stock market bubble that is completely and totally divorced from economic reality. Meanwhile, everything is not so fine for the rest of the U.S. economy. Economic growth projections have been steadily declining over the past two years, and the growth rate of personal income in the United States has been on a huge downward trend since 2008. The U.S. economy actually lost 240,000 full-time jobs last month, and the middle class continues to shrink. So welcome to the new normal where most Americans struggle at least part of the time. According to one recent survey, four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives. Things are tough out there, and they are steadily getting tougher. Yes, the boys and girls up on Wall Street are doing great (for the moment), but most of the rest of the country is really struggling. We have never even come close to recovering from the last major economic crisis, and now another one is rapidly approaching. In a normal market, stock prices would only rise dramatically if the overall economy was healthy and growing. Unfortunately, our economy is far from healthy and has been declining for a very long time. If the financial markets were not being pumped up by so much money printing and so much debt, there is no way that stock prices would be this high. If we truly did have a free market financial system, stock prices should be a reflection of the overall economy. Instead, we have a very sick economy and financial markets that have been very highly manipulated. For example, just check out the first chart that I have posted below. If the economy was actually getting better, the percentage of working age Americans with a job should be increasing. Sadly, that is not happening And no market can stay divorced from reality forever. At some point this bubble is going to burst, and when financial bubbles burst they tend to do so very rapidly. As Marc Faber recently said, one day, this financial bubble will have to adjust on the downside. When it does adjust, we are likely going to see a financial panic even worse than we witnessed back in 2008. Credit will freeze up, economic activity will grind to a standstill and millions of Americans will lose their jobs. Dont assume that the bubble of false prosperity that we are enjoying right now will last forever. Use the time that you have right now to prepare for what is ahead. A great storm is rapidly approaching, and I dont see any way that it is going to be averted. This article first appeared here at the Economic Collapse Blog. Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. Follow him on Twitter here. linkwithin_text=Related Articles: 