“Stock Market Gained $2T in Wealth Since Trump Elected”

That’s the headline on a Fox News insider report of Club For Growth founder Stephen Moore’s claim about one outcome of President Donald Trump’s election.  It’s certainly true that the market has run up hard since the election (although it’s had other periods of sharp gains, too, that are unrelated to elections).  Moore also was quoted as saying,

This could be the start of a big bull market rally[.]

There are a couple of things about this, one bigger than the other.  The lesser thing is that the stock market has been in a bull run for most of the year.

The bigger thing, though, is the misconception of “wealth” in the stock market.  The stock market has gained value, not wealth.  Wealth is what someone can spend on necessities and froo-froo, actual goods and services; stock shares aren’t those.  To turn that (gain in) value into actual wealth, all those higher priced shares would have to be sold for real dollars—and if everyone did that roughly simultaneously, most of that value gain would disappear in the selling.