One pundit notes that the lack of heavy selling today in equities (the S&P 500 was up about 0.5%) implies that the market “doesn’t fear healthcare reform,” via Andrew Leonard at Salon.com. Paul Krugman echoes the point on his blog: “if Obamacare is such a disaster for the economy, where’s the market reaction?”
Does this mean the market’s efficient after all? Or, to take the opposite view: Is the market inefficient and therefore its muted reaction is a sign that healthcare reform is really bad news for the economy–bad news that the market doesn’t perceive?