Hussman: The economy is basically a big karma train

As a sidenote, the gross domestic investment - plant, equipment, capital spending, real estate, etc - in the economy is exactly equal to saving in the economy (including imported savings from foreigners). So for instance, the savings that people create through their 401K programs and so forth do finance real investments, but those savings need not increase the value of stocks and may not even be of benefit to stock-issuing corporations at all, even if the savings are invested in stocks. For instance, if Mickey (who is a construction worker) invests new savings in a stock mutual fund through his 401K, the fund goes out and buys stock from Ricky, who gets Mickey's cash and invests it in a money market fund, which buys debt securities issued by a government agency, which purchases mortgages made by Nicky's bank, which lends the cash to Nicky, who uses it to pay construction workers to build a house. Though that route was more direct than most, savings really do equal investment for the nation as a whole. The economy is basically a big karma train.