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[nimblebear]

There are the obvious ones such as Vix, that indicate extreme complacency, but I'm going to throw these others out there, which most might not take as such: 1. Extremely low interest rates on savings. While this punishes savers big time, and especially hurts seniors, its been in place for an abnormally sustained period, a very disturbing trend - that is, people have become very "used to" not making any money whatsoever on savings, so it actually serves as a major psychological hurdle to save, thus driving up spending on largely unnecessary consumption. Industries sprout up, or stay in business longer than they should have producing massive quantities of unneeded and soon to become value-less goods. This creates major complacency in the folks who believe this is a sustainable trend, and a pretty good indicator of this is Apple's stock, and the largely useless device that other far cheaper devices can serve the primary purpose of. Everything else about the device is pure flatulence. Also these low interest rates are driving people into extremely risky financial products, even products that are entirely based on the premise of low interest rates. People are diving into products that really need to give them 20 to 30% returns for the risk they are taking on, and they are realizing a very anemic 4 to 5% on average, if not losing massive amounts of principle or capital to the extortionistic "pro's", otherwise known as vultures. 2. Extreme levels of debts in all corners: Individual young students, state governments, city governments, federal level, banks, and corporate balance sheets. Where the complacency comes in, is that we've now all become "accustomed to" absurdly high levels of debt, and the associated massive burden of servicing that debt. Debt service is now built into the base cost of doing everything. It kills cash flow, creates indenturedness, and rather than doing something about it, we have governments bending over backwards to create MORE OF IT ! (not less.) This complacency is being masked, if not subterfuged by the repeated QE by all governments. Nobody is in rage about it. Nobody is really concerned about it. Most middle class americans have just come to accept it. So all the indicators are really quite warped. 3. High taxes: We've all just taken for granted that high taxes are the inevitable norm. Property taxes, state taxes, federal taxes,medicare taxes, ss taxes, increased sales taxes. At most income levels, nearly all taxes eat up 50% of take home pay. We say we don't have it as 'bad' as other countries, but relative "bad" is a non-starter. SHouldn't even be part of the equation. Its like two guys in a hospital comparing whether one guys cancer is worse than another one's heart attack, and persistently clogged arteries. So we've become complacent about this too. Essentially this level of taxation and the associated complacency is indicative of a socialistic society. Greece is a socialistic society, entirely devoid of democracy and free market principles. We are succumbing to that in spades, like a frog in a hot slow boil. The frog has no clue its dying. Neither do we, as far as taxes go. The expiration of Bush tax cuts are the least of our worries. Its all the other taxes that continue to be raised, and society pummeled with to no end. At what point does the civilization revolt, and say "enough's, enough !" ??? 4. Extreme erosion of civil liberties, and individual rights. The complacency here is mind boggling. The laws being enacted on a daily basis, 99% of which are elimination of more and more rights, and people don't even realize it, are a perfect example of how complacent we've become. The Trayvon Martin/Zimmerman situation is a tremendous example of how our rights have been decimated. We truly have not had for years the right to defend ourselves. The Florida law notwithstanding, our society was in an outrage about the wrong reasons. A guy died, but worse our society has become that much more fragile. That law which was a very lame attempt at allowing a basic citizen to bear arms and use those arms when attacked, will now be over-ridden. We are not just complacent, but are clueless as to what that law means, and how little we can do in terms of protecting ourselves and loved ones. Why does America have the most people in prison per capita than any other nation on the planet ? Its because we continue to have laws like this put into place giving the appearance of protecting our rights, but in reality providing cover for those who wish to strip us all of any rights. Complacency here in America abounds when it comes to lawyers, and legislators who pass all the laws on a regular basis, thousands of them annually, and it's not until a Trayvon Martin dies do we even become aware that the laws exist. They are all hoping we don't find out, until someday we are all locked up in FEMA camps, or at least the ones who insist upon desiring true individual liberties. The liberties and rights upon which this country was founded, and at one time was one of the free-est countries in the world. Instead we watch the news, read the internet, and shake our heads in raw disgust over someone who tried to protect himself, rather than shaking our heads in disgust at how our rights and liberties are being stripped. Media and government has successfully brainwashed us. They are declaring victory every time an incident like this happens. They are saying to themselves, "those stupid complacent sheeple frogs. They have no clue they are being boiled !" So if you think there is no complacency built into the markets, and prices have adjusted to all risks, and our governments and market makers have successfully mitigated away all risks, whether it be from violence, wars, pestilence, drugs, mother nature, gravity, asteroids, sun spots, global warming, I guess the markets should be even more bullish than they currently are, and putting money into stocks is no riskier than putting money into your local savings and loan, and your risk of that one stock, or multiple stocks imploding is no greater than being attacked by a Trayvon Martin, and you are especially ok, if you don't carry a gun.