Wall Street’s Fever Has a Very Precise Number

When Wall Street’s thermometer climbs into the red, paying attention is sensible. The stated 227–230% market-cap-to-GDP reading is a fever signal, not a diagnosis. Calling it bubble territory may sound satisfyingly precise, but one number cannot certify a bubble or tell us when it might burst.

If Wall Street is running hotter than the real economy, that deserves scrutiny. But ordinary people deserve more than a red-zone reading delivered with the confidence of a courthouse stamp. A useful alarm should start the questions, not end them. Wall Street may have a fever; the rest of us still need the doctor’s note.