I have heard it hundreds of times, the stock market is not the economy, and the economy is not the stock market. The sooner everyone gets that the better.

Money is not the economy either. The economy is the exchange of goods and services. Money is just the most common medium if exchange and a store of values. Money, bonds and stocks are not the economy. The exchange of goods and services, labor and materials are the economy. Money, bonds and stocks and even crypto are all just tools to facilitate the exchange of goods and services. Storing value is just a deferral of those exchanges.

TEK