The Professors: Wall Street and America’s Economic Health Part 1 of 2

The Dow is up, the NASDAQ is down and the S and P trimmed its weekly gain. Reports like this are familiar to anyone who watches the news. They’re often the only economic data reported in a nightly newscast. Are those figures enough to judge the health of a nation’s economy? Are there other indicators that better describe the condition of those not in the investor class? And more generally – does the health of Wall Street and America’s stock markets necessarily reflect the overall health of American citizens?