How the obsession over Apple's stock plunge reveals our skewed view of the economy

You'd think that Apple's latest earnings report, released Tuesday, would be taken as unalloyed good news: Revenue increased 33 percent and profits increased 38 percent from last year, to $49.6 billion and $10.7 billion, respectively. Not to mention selling 47.5 million iPhones — a 35 percent increase.

But analysts had expected something on the order of 49 million sales. The company moved 1.5 million to three million of its new Apple Watches, below the three million to five million analysts had hoped for. And Apple's revenue slightly missed the $51.13 billion that was anticipated.