It usually takes me a week but ...

I'm finally getting through the latest edition of TIME Magazine. It's a nice, quick read these days, with some interesting things to consider.
This week though, there was a dynamic column by Zachary Karabell about the economy: ["With Stocks, It's Not the Economy"].
In a nutshell, he basically says that even though nation states are getting creamed, a lot of companies aren't because they are so big and so global at this point that it really doesn't matter what happens in the U.S. or Greece or wherever. There is always some other place to sell Coke or Marlboros and make the markup.
In addition, people should not be looking towards the stock market for any indication about how the economy is doing; that's like seeing how many people are at the blackjack tables at Foxwoods. Wall Street doesn't indicate anything but what's going on there - not here.
When taken all together, the column really gets to the heart of the problem of globalization. As these same companies control Washington, with their lobbyists and influence, the politicians will never truly do what needs to be done to save the economy. As we have been manipulated into watching Wall Street - whether we own stocks or not - and taught to think that this is the economic engine of the country, we're consistently heading in the wrong direction.
It's amazing that so many people, so many educated, so many experts, can be so blindly tricked into believing that this is the economic system we should have.