News flash, governments run economies. Breaking news, get it here while it's fresh!
Probably a good time to bring up how the dollar is a fiat currency also.
At the end of the day money doesn't have any more value than we give it. The day we stop valuing money and exchanging years of our limited life on it will be the day that it tanks. Till then, people will continue to be slaves and continue to power our wonderful markets.
Not to mention we have access to the same numbers they do, if you know everything in that list of things then it's not necessarily a government run secret. It's information people aren't willing to source themselves. There's a sheer lack of interest from people outside of investors in those numbers, your common high school football coach doesn't care if car sales are atrocious. People only care about what works for them and their families, as long as their ok, "everyone" is "ok." It's how life goes, it's not pretty but it's where we were born.
RE: Part II -- Boomers Retiring -- is the Stock Market now considered to be a "national security issue"