Much is being made of the year closings of several major
stock indices being DOWN. This is not
surprising, because in the past 7 years there has been in fact so LITTLE bad
news economically to speak of, the Conservative Media (read: ALL of the media)
has had very little to write about. Now I wrote an article very similar to this
one a few years back, and in light of the celebratory doom and gloom coming
from the Right at the prospect that the horrible, terrible (yet somehow
BOOMING) Obama economy might finally be coming to an end, let's put these year-end
down turns into perspective.
I'm sure everyone is well aware that after eight years of
George W. Bush, we were basically broke as a country, an economy and as
people. To reiterate, in case you've
conveniently forgotten, or are otherwise allergic to facts and data, the day Governor
George W. Bush took office, the Dow Jones Industrials (DJIA) were at 10581.96,
following roughly 8 years of growth under Bill Clinton. By the time Senator Barack
H. Obama took office, it was down to 8077.56, a loss of 23.7% of its value. The
NASDAQ has fallen from 2759.10 to 1476.42, for a whopping 46.5% loss. The
S&P 500 stated at 1342.54 and fell to 805.22 for an even 40% loss. And the
NYSE fell from 6853.79 to 5195.55, a 24.2% loss. Those are EIGHT YEAR RETURNS mind you! Keep
that in mind as everyone frets about the DJIA, NYSE and S&P500 (though not
the NASDAQ) being down a few points after just ONE YEAR!
Now... I already know what you're thinking: Most of those
losses came right at the end of 2008, didn't they? Just in time for the election?
Well... Not exactly. The BIGGEST losses did - the DJIA lost 700 points in a
single day, just after John McCain made a speech about the fundamentals of our economy
being strong, for example - but that particular slide was already almost two
years in the making at that point. But if you want to how insane it was that we
not only ELECTED that fool (we didn't, I know, but bear with me here) but RE-elected
him, check this out: On election day, 2004, the DJIA was at 10054.39, down 5%.
The NASDAQ closed at 1979.87, down 28.2%. The S&P had fallen to 1130.51, a
loss of 15.8% and the NYSE stood at 6699.86 - the best performer among them,
losing a mere 2.2%. Those were FOUR YEAR
returns, by the way! So, you read that
correctly: That piece of shit was RE-ELECTED after every major stock index LOST
value during just him first four years in office! And that didn't happen right before election
night either! All four were down form most of 2008! Amazing how that never came
up as the swift-boat veterans lied about Senator John Kerry's war record with
such reckless abandon, huh?
(Yeah, Kerry's ''04 campaign kind of sucked. *I* could have done
better. Hell *my dog* could have done better!)
So after their guy gave us losses after four years, and HUGE
losses after eight, what are they complaining about now? Well... President Obama's economy has yielded
the following stock market returns since his inauguration: The DJIA closed
2015 at 17425.03, up 115.7%! The NASDAQ closed the year at 5007.41, up 239.2%!
The S&P closed at 2043.94, up 153.8%! And the NYSE finished at 10146.57, up
95.3%! So... after giving us an economy
that yielded nearly triple digit returns in every major stock index over SEVEN
YEARS, the same idiots who supported the party of four- and eight-year LOSSES
are back to complaining about the Obama Economy again. And before anyone thinks
a President Trump would be any different? If he had invested the fortune he
inherited from his Father in some of the index funds I've mentioned above,
rather than going into business and investing it himself? He would be worth
rather a bit more than he is today. He
is a below-average businessman strictly by the numbers, even before you factor in
his FOUR bankruptcies - the only reason the man still has a pot to piss in or a
window to throw it out!
Finally, I do realize that this is a 1%'er biased article, using
the stock markets as I've done. But hey: It 's the 1%'ers who are complaining
right? OK, I know it isn't. But it IS the 1%'ers who's complaints are being
listened to and aired by the media. For the rest of us? You can make these same
comparisons with unemployment and job creation, and reach the same conclusions
as well. And for the more academic-minded economists, remember: He did all of
this while slashing the federal budget deficit by two-thirds, and without
seeing a significant uptick in inflation! The only thing that would stop a
Republican with this record's face being carved next to Mount Rushmore would
that he'd have to be a Liberal.
Happy New Year and Vote Blue!
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