Wealth effect or swoon effect?

[Rob Schaap <bantam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

G'day all,

Another in my futile series of posing ridiculous propositions in the hope of
getting edifyingly corrected.

I see world markets have 'rallied' (y'always have to put that in apostraphes
because these things only ever last about four days) on account of 'better
than expected' consumer sentiment/splurge.

I'm left wondering how much the rich have to do with this.  My guess is quite
a bit (especially if you count the Veblenian emulation spin-off).  I'm
thinking that because I was fantasising this morning about being rich (just
didn't have the energy for the usual Wednesday morning Emma Peel fantasy), and
found myself thinking, well, I certainly wouldn't be plonking it on the
markets for the moment.  Which leads to the question, are market-ameliorating
consumer numbers a function of the fact the markets are sagging?

Seeing contradictions everywhere,
Rob.