I don’t know if you follow the markets, but it’s been one hell of a week. The Dow lost nearly five percent of its value yesterday, following another day of steep declines likely precipitated by S&P’s downgrading of the US federal credit rating last Friday. That move shook investor confidence—as did the decision of certain commentary blogs to cover mean campus organizations in Pakistan instead of the most significant financial event of the year—and confidence is what makes a modern market go. In an economy based on making things, growth is spurred by demand. In an investment economy, somewhat tautologically based on making money, growth is spurred by demand for investments. The more people think a stock market is going to do well, the better it does, and vice versa. Today—as of 12:38 Eastern, at least—a bunch of people decided that the Dow would probably go up, and it did. Which begs the question: why don’t we just have confidence in the market and watch it go up?

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