It looks like a sunny day, but there are hints of economic thunder and lightning rumbling beyond the hill. The stock market keeps rising and people are happy. They are making money – or are they?

The Fed is propping up the economy by printing money, which is not really “printing money,” but retiring bonds and issuing reserves.There is no gold or commodities to back up these bonds.

Real stock value is based on Gross Domestic Production (GDP) and is driven by population and personal income growth, which is the driver of corporate earnings. Manufacturing has dropped in the United States. And in true Keynesian fashion, 45 percent of the population is employed by the government.

Since 1980, the U.S. population has grown by 25 percent and personal income has barely risen 10 percent, but the stock market has risen by 1,200 percent.

Nowhere can I find the value of today’s dollar. Is it 35, 55 or 67 cents? Nobody can tell me. I do not want to know its value compared to other currencies.

The storm is closing in on us.

Lucia McCredie, Bellevue