Because a bull market in the stock market is now a matter of national security. About 58% of American households have exposure to the stock market. In terms of real wealth, 45% of household wealth is invested in stocks. That is, almost half of the wealth Americans own is tied to the stock market. Only in this context does a major bear market or stock market crash become a matter of national security in terms of economic impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s the equivalent of an economic nuclear weapon. But wait, because this relationship goes even deeper than most people realize. The stock market is now actually the economy itself.<\/p>\n\n\n
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The rich are getting richer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We are in a \u201cK-shaped\u201d economy, where the top 10% of income or otherwise of consumers account for almost all of the consumer spending and economic growth, while the bottom 90% of income\/consumers struggle with the increased cost of living due to inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The top 10% of households, that is, the people who essentially drive the economy through consumption, own over 90% of the stocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this context, a falling stock market would cause a huge reduction in consumer spending. And since consumption represents 70% of GDP, this would immediately lead to a recession. This is no exaggeration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We got a taste of this during the trade war and tariff crisis in March\/April 2025, when stocks plunged 18% in four weeks, wiping out $11 trillion in wealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During that time, many companies \u2014 from Southwest Airlines to Chipotle to PepsiCo \u2014 warned that they were seeing a decline in consumer spending to recession levels. That\u2019s why policymakers, including the President and his inner circle, always intervene to prop up the stock market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s why the market is manipulated both through statements and through direct injections of newly printed money by the Fed. This depreciation will force capital to flow into higher-risk assets, such as stocks, real estate, and \u201chard\u201d assets like gold. It is no coincidence that both stocks and gold have skyrocketed during the same period.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The truth of the numbers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, twelve American companies have a market value of more than $1 trillion. Their total capitalization reaches $29 trillion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Walmart had already entered the \u201c1 trillion club\u201d for a few weeks, albeit marginally, but recently fell below this threshold. If it were added to the list again, then the 12 American companies would have a total capitalization of about $30 trillion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This amount corresponds to about 43% of the total market value of all companies in the S&P 500 index. During the small correction that occurred from January 28 to March 6 of this year, the total value of these 12 companies decreased by $1.8 trillion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the 58 sessions that followed, their value increased by $4.9 trillion. Over the past six years, their total market capitalization has skyrocketed from about $6 trillion to $30 trillion. These are returns that have guided an entire generation of investors.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Case of Micron<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The latest company to join the \u201ctrillion-dollar club\u201d is Micron Technology. Since its low on April 3, 2025, its stock has surged 1,315%. Its market value has increased from $72 billion to over $1 trillion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most impressively, the second half of this journey \u2014 from $500 billion to $1 trillion \u2014 was accomplished in just 48 sessions, a record-breaking feat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 12 U.S. companies in the \u201ctrillion-dollar club\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eli Lilly is in danger of falling below the trillion mark, while Micron is also quite close to that possibility. Even a normal daily fluctuation could be enough. These stocks are now considered highly volatile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n $30 Trillion Isn\u2019t What It Used to Be\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n $30 trillion was once considered an unimaginable sum. Just four years ago, the total national debt of the United States was about $30 trillion. Today, it\u2019s $39 trillion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not because it\u2019s gotten any bigger, but because it\u2019s still growing. And more companies worth more than $1 trillion. There are three more companies with a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion, but they\u2019re not American:<\/p>\n\n\n\n What happens if there\u2019s a major correction?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Every small drop in the combined value of these 12 companies means trillions of dollars disappearing from investment portfolios. Every small rise creates trillions of dollars \u201con paper.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n If there were even a 20% drop, about $6 trillion in market value would disappear. Once, $6 trillion was considered a huge amount. Today, it could be lost simply by the correction of a dozen stocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recession risk<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A classic tech stock crash, similar to those seen in the past after periods of excessive gains, could lead the US economy into recession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Trust Economics, there are limits to how much trillions can be lost from household and business portfolios without affecting their financial decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When losses become too great, consumers and businesses cut back on spending and investment, slowing economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The example of the dot-com bubble<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A similar situation occurred during the dotcom bust. A year after the crash began, in March 2001, the United States entered a recession. The recession lasted until November of that year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the stock market crash continued until October 2002. By then, the Nasdaq Composite had lost about 78% of its value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The crisis particularly affected areas with a large concentration of technology, telecommunications, software, hardware, and biotechnology companies, such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n In these areas, the situation resembled more of an economic depression than a simple recession. However, much of the rest of the country was much less affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The overall recession turned out to be relatively mild compared to the much deeper crisis that followed a few years later, when the collapse of the housing bubble coincided with an over-indebted and dangerously interconnected banking system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A stock market crash is not imminent. The concentration of enormous value in just 11\u201312 companies has reached historically extreme levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If these companies undergo a serious correction, the loss of wealth will be so great that it could affect consumption, investment, and ultimately the growth of the American economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The comparison is mainly to the tech bubble of 2000, although it is recognized that today’s tech giants are much more profitable and powerful than most companies of the dot-com era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The sheer size of the numbers is simply mind-boggling: 12 American companies have a market value of $30 trillion? Note that the U.S. GDP…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,961],"tags":[3240,919,8109,8124,1049,3881,8125,920,4371,8126,1054,5341,3896],"class_list":["post-29286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic","category-financial-economics","tag-amazon","tag-apple","tag-big-tech","tag-eli-lilly","tag-investments","tag-meta","tag-micron-technology","tag-microsoft","tag-nvidia","tag-seven-magnificent","tag-stocks","tag-tesla","tag-wall-street"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29293,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29286\/revisions\/29293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-131.png\")
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