The Economy Is Booming For 19 Americans

[Igel]

6. Reich knows better.

Great, let's have a massive sell-off of stocks to provide the liquidity to distribute their money.

Wait. Who's going to buy all that stock at those prices? And you know, with the market flooded like that, the stock prices will plummet. Then you won't get that money.

Reich knows how it works. He also knows that a lot of people don't.

My mom was one of them. Their house almost doubled in value in a bit over 10 years because of demand. Then 2009 hit and her house value went back to the nominal value it had when they paid for it. And my mom wanted to know who stole her money! Except that she never asked who she stole the money from when the house appreciated. It was a gift of the market, so to speak--and when the market went way soft, the market reclaimed the non-money valuation of the asset.

You can't spend unrealized assets (unless you decide to borrow against them and pay interest instead of taxes). At the same time, sometimes the sale involved in realizing assets changes the market.