"and that is how INTC beat the estimates for both earnings and margins"
at least the wsj coverage goes into this, going so far as to quote a fund manager saying that he'd like to know "how much" was sold, and noting that intel declined to say how much ...
"as consumer sales continue to lag"
though my own personal indicator here - how many cars without license plates i see on the road each day (i.e. recently purchased) - says that maybe the consumer is a bit stronger now. at least, the metric show him much stronger than february ...
to pump the stock market to revive the economy will fail as it has since 2000. You have documented very well these intentions, and good intentions they are, but it will fail.
Until we face up to the real problems, and let time and process heal, we go down.