After the PBS News Hour, I watch the Nightly Business Report. Tonight’s lead story was the approaching hostilities in the Mid East and how it was going to affect the stock market.

That’s right, the nation is getting ready to engage in air and missile strikes against Syria on account of their barbaric use of poison gases against civilian populations and no doubt Russian and Iranian forces will be involved. Forces of Saudi Arabia, Israel, Britain, France and Turkey may be involved, maybe others. At the very least, people are going to die, maybe lots of them. Some of them might even be Americans. And it is always possible the fighting could spread, either deliberately or by accident, becoming a regional or even a world conflict.

But the NBR folks are concerned about how this mini-Armageddon is going to affect the stock market. The learned pundits comment on how markets respond to this sort of thing, both long and short term. What are the risks to investors? What are the opportunities? What industries will most likely be affected? What’s going to happen to oil prices? The analysts speak in measured, rational tones, as if they were discussing trade agreements or tax incentives, or perhaps fluctuations in the interest rate.

WHAT IS FUCKING WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?