Kai Ryssdal

So on Monday, I started the program.

We had noticed that the markets are just being whipsawed.

You know, Trump says one thing and it goes this way.

Trump says the other thing goes this way and then he bombs more and it goes sideways.

And I posited on the radio that perhaps the markets are an idiot.

That they don't, right?

I mean, you know.

They're not the economy, but they are also an idiot.

And I guess I wonder what is your sense of why they are so detached from the pandemonium?

I think, so look, I'm being flip here and I try really hard not to do that, but fundamentally the markets don't care whether you live or die, right?

And as long as they see short-term gains, whether it's in defense stocks or technology or what have you, they're fine.

And if the president says 10-day pause, so look, you saw this on Thursday, right?

Markets close at 4 Eastern.

At 4 11, after the worst close during the war in three weeks, the president comes out and says, oh, you know what?

Ten more days, right?

And then the next day futures were up.

I mean, they closed down the next day, but whatever, right?

The market is just pinging back and forth.

Look, I understand it's all algorithmic trading, but there's no sensibility of the chaos that's happening in these things that we use to try to help measure what's going on out there.

And I guess I wonder what your sense is of that.