Quote Originally Posted by Poopadoop View Post
Businesses whose stock value goes up can use the money to invest in expansion. That creates jobs. Of course that only helps the average person if those jobs go to average people. A large part of the recent rise in stocks has been in financial institutions like Goldman Sachs (surprise!), who don't hire many 'average' people.
It's way more than that. What types of assets does GS hold? People with relation to those assets benefit from the rally. In fact, rallies that positively affect banks like GS don't even have to be about the banks themselves but about the assets, of which banks tend to hold a good deal. For example, if there is a increase in the expected price level of housing values, banks that hold mortgages are likely to rally too even though the lion's share of the benefit is to the home owners themselves.

Given how diversified banks are, it is very unlikely that a rally (or a fall) in stocks won't include them.