Monday, September 29, 2008

Preznit Economypants

Steve Benen:

* As of today, the Dow Jones is lower now than it was the day Bush took office in 2001.


I'm not a fan of using the DJIA as a measurement for success, personally, as it doesn't include quality of life, or, you know, the majority of Americans, but damn. By his own standard (remember the CEO President? How's that working out?), Bush is a miserable failure.

... the DJIA on:


January 3rd, 1992: 3,201.48
October 14th, 1996: 6,010.00
January 14th, 2000: 11,722.98

Today, September 29th, 2008: 10,365.45

6 comments:

Michael Faris said...

So, the Dow Jones doubled in four years, and then nearly doubled again in the next four. This seems scarier to me than the fact that it's gone down 10% in 8 years. That kind of expansion is doomed to bust. And it's only a sign that the rich are getting richer (at least on paper, which is where it counts in speculative capitalism).

Anonymous said...

If he gets blamed for the DOW, then the Dems get blamed for yesterday. They had the votes on their own to pass the bailout, and they chickened out. They wouldn't do it unless the republicans had a lot of votes also. So, that way, if they were wrong, they wouldn't have to take the blame by themselves. Over 9% of the drop was directly on the democrats head. Let's not even go into how much Obama and Dodd are in the pockets of Freddie and Fannie. So, Dennis, I am tired of the Bush bashing on your site. They are all idiots, and neither Obama or McCain can or will improve it.

Dennis said...

Anon, I'm not sure I can agree with that. John Boehner said the Republicans would vote for the bill, and when the vote came, they didn't - and they blamed a speech given by Nancy Pelosi, which is kind of sad. As well, if I were the Dems, I would note want sole ownership of the bailout.

I think there's plenty of blame to go around on this one.

And no, I don't think Obama will make it much better; even if he tries, too many Congresspeople are owned by something other than their official constituents. McCain? Let's not even go there.

Dennis said...

Michael,

I agree - the financial system is such that there is no way that material value increased fourfold in eight years. Instead, people created more and more complex financial instruments to try and make money from other money. Those elaborate, Goldbergian constructions are now coming tumbling down.

In that sense, Bush was handed a mess. On the other hand, he chose not to work on it.

On the other hand, the 90s were the era of the Internet and tech boom. So some of the value is certainly grounded in something.

Anonymous said...

The reason I say McCain also, if the system is in a big enough hole, and with a house and senate run by democrats, no way can McCain can pass any tax cuts, especially on business and wall street. People would string him up for trying. The question comes, if Obama is president, and with a democrat house and senate, can he hold back on his desires to spend on every possible proposal and tax the economy into oblivion? During the debates, and I know it is just for television, I never heard one area that he would not increase spending. And that money will come from where? He wants to increase the tax on capital gains and businesses. Fine. We'll have no capital gains for the next few years and many businesses will fail due to the credit markets. He won't have the money left unless he taxes us all.

Do you realize how many millions of people were taken off the tax rolls by Bush's tax cuts? All those people, and we are talking people making less than $35k, will see tax increases under Obama just by congress letting the last tax cuts expire. The marriage penalty, inheritance taxes, etc. all coming back in 2011. Let's hope the economy recovers by then. I think Reagan always wanted to spend into deficits, thereby forcing spending cuts eventually. He may have gotten his wish.

Anonymous said...

Yes, and 40% of the democrats didn't vote for the bill either. And Pelosi is their leader. Many of the republicans were thinking, "hey, if the democrats know the bill stinks, why would we vote for it then?" I think the best thing probably happened, and that was nothing. Let the businesses fail. Stop lending to people who can't pay it back. Repeal the community reinvestment act which penalizes banks for not lending to the poor or unemployed. Stop bailing out companies who made big bets and were wrong. And you want to do something important? Fix Medicare and social security which, if and when they fail, will cause far more damage than this no bailout thing is causing.

I am hoping for some real debates on those topics. And I have NO faith in Nobama or McCain't.

And yes, Bush was handed a mess, and in the process of the Fed fixing the mess, they probably created the start of the housing bubble. The doctor saying, "yes, the patient is in a coma because I removed his brain, but hey, his broken ankle that I was supposed to fix won't bug him anymore"

 
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