Abstract: It has been argued that degrowth would lead to a catastrophic economic collapse triggered by a collapse of stock exchange values. However, this analysis rests on several flawed assumptions: (i) an outdated view on stock market mechanisms and values (ii) the assumption that the stock market mechanisms would remain unchanged in a degrowth economy (iii) unchanged expectations of benefits from the stock market and (iv) a misperception of economic processes e.g. under a resource capping approach caused by the theory of economic agents. While (i) and (ii) call for a new realism in analysing stock market processes, (iv) is a deficit of macroeconomic theory leading to the expectation of collapse as a result of oversimplification. (iii) points to a serious problem any degrowing society has to solve: the distribution of income between labour, capital and public institutions / the state, including social security and pension systems.