[DecentRecruiter]

Stock market: investors like that companies are correcting for the over-hiring that peaked in 2021 - lower costs & higher productivity.

Housing prices: have barely increased since late 2022 in most major cities (falling in cities like Austin). Still, you're right, they're unreachable for most.

Gold: it's not the traditional safe haven investment it used to be. Its correlation with stock prices is much higher than it was in the old days.

Bitcoin: I will never understand!

[bdw5204]

A "stock market boom" built on killing jobs is not a booming economy. That's why any politician who brags about or defends this morally indefensible "boom" is going to be in trouble politically.

[DecentRecruiter]

I wouldn't call it morally indefensible for companies to make layoffs after the hiring irrational exuberance that occured in 2021. They're trimming fat.

I would use that label for a Private Equity firm leveraged buyout, followed by a complete gutting of employees, then a quick flip for profit.