The Top 10 reasons for market’s mugging

I NVESTORS,

fearful of the chaos in Washington, laid a beating on the markets on Wednesday — and all I can say is: What took so long?

There are dozens of reasons why Main Street investors should be concerned — here’s my Top 10 list.

10. The threat of a nuclear attack on someone by the crazy dictator in North Korea would be, of course, a very destabilizing event.

This group in Pyongyang is truly The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot (or Think) Straight.

9. The threat of terrorism. Remember that? There hasn’t been a terrorist attack in the US in quite a while. Thank goodness. But Homeland Security head John

Kelly recently said threats from our southern border “[keep] me awake at night.” Pay close attention to that.

8. ISIS is still around and going strong after all these years. And now there are reports that Al-Qaeda and, specifically, Osama bin Laden’s son want to reclaim their position as the world’s most dangerous fraternity.

7. The economy. It’s still going nowhere and has no one in charge with any idea of how to make it go somewhere.

6. Interest rates. Despite the goingnowhere economy, the Federal Reserve is determined to raise interest rates. You can’t blame it. The Fed has created a big problem for itself that can only be fixed by getting interest rates back to more normal levels.

5. The US debt. Start popping the corn. The national debt will soon reach $20 trillion.

And the fact that the Fed is increasing interest rates is going to make the debt rise even faster. If Washington ever gets around to cutting taxes, then the US government’s debt will rise even faster — although those who favor this move say it will eventually all be worth it. (The eternal politicians’ pledge.)

4. The Chinese economy. Remember when everyone was worried about the fact that the world was going to run out of resources because the Chinese economy was booming and using up all the oil, iron, coal and whatever else the world could produce? Well, not anymore. The Chinese economy is in trouble.

3. The constitutional crises now reverberating around Washington have finally gotten Wall Street’s attention.

2. Corporate profits. Earnings seem to be improving, but there are signs that the gains aren’t all legit. Fancy accounting, one organization claims, is making corporate performances look better than they really are.

And my No. 1 reason why you should be wary of the markets: There are strong indications that central banks have been heavily buying US stocks and propping up markets, and there’s no telling when their efforts will start to fail.

There’s no evidence yet that the Federal Reserve is in on this game, but I have my suspicions.

The Swiss, Japanese and Chinese central banks aren’t even shy about the fact that they are rigging our stock markets — a dangerous game because there’s no proof they can prevent a crash if these markets take a turn for the worse.

With that ugly list, let me repeat this warning: Stock prices are too high in relation to earnings. If you are participating in the stock market, which, frankly, is the only way you’ll make any return on your investments these days, be nimble enough to get out when the collapse comes.

That means sleeping with one eye open and checking your stocks when you get up to pee in the middle of the night.

As you probably heard, Washington investigators are investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians over the hacking of Hillary Clin

ton’s e-mails and other things related to the election.

So, the stock market might have to deal with a constitutional crisis if Trump did something wrong that is impeachable. Like the fantasy that the vote count was messed up or that there would be enough treacherous Electoral College delegates who’d turn on President Trump, I think the impeachment gambit is going nowhere.

But, as Lotto players say, you never know.

There’s a second constitutional crisis going on that you probably haven’t thought about.

It’s the refusal of large segments of this country — especially the media — to accept the fact that Trump won more than enough electoral votes to become president.

Under our constitution he won the election. And the fact that some powerful people refuse to accept that — California, for instance, was considering thinking of becoming its own country — creates a constitutional crisis that is ongoing.

And the fact that all that’s going on in Washington didn’t lead to problems for the financial markets until Wednesday is, quite honestly, amazing to me and many others.

There are a lot of other problems that can result from Washington’s chaos.

It’s like a can of worms inside of Pandora’s box.

Once the investigation of Russian email hacking and things President Trump has said and done gets going, there’s no telling who will get caught up in it. Just a thought: Do the Democrats really want an investigation of conversations and e-mails between their election committee, Hillary and intelligence agencies? And, as I’ve been saying for a long time, there are still those hacked Clinton e-mails that never came out before the election. A full investigation of all this stuff could lead to some very embarrassing disclosures — and not only for Trump.