Yes Trump is making things worse, but I think the overall market would look about the same no matter who was president. Just about every market world wide is down about 30% from its high, same as the US. You can’t have a everyone in the world stay home for a few weeks/months without massive damage to the economy.
The thing is that the only two “positive” things that Trump could point as why he should be elected were the economy and judges. So even if it isn’t his fault its going to hurt his chances big time.
(off topic) As far as judges go, I think he may be heading into a no-win situation, as abortion actually hits the supreme court. If Roe v. Wade is upheld, then even the conservative judges accomplishment will be more or less of the table. On the other hand if they do strike it down, then it will galvanize the majority who support it against him.
There’s no question that markets would suffer regardless of what type of capitalism we employed, but the post-1980 capitalism espoused by Republicans have replaced pensions with 401-Ks and IRA and encouraged gambling, er, investing in the stock market. This has been coupled with policies that have led to the concentration of wealth and similarly encouraged short-term yields over longer-term value in equities. A side effect of US tax and regulatory policy is that these policies also have produced a serious conflict of interest by the CEOs who pump up stocks any which way they can, take the money, and run - and unless they’re engaging in Bernie Madoff-sized Ponzi schemes, the only real accountability is a golden parachute. But there’s nothing of value for the wage-earner, their households, and consumers, who can only really grow their spending power (now and in the future) by taking on debt.
And so take on debt we do, and we keep telling ourselves how great our economy is until debt-ridden households run into a cash flow problem - like right now. Send money to the local banks all you want; it’s the debt-burdened household that will need the relief, and I seriously doubt they get it.
President Trump missed a 3,000 point drop by thiiiis much, with the DJIA closing down 2,997 in a bloodbath in both points and percentage (-12.93%) to end the day @ 20,188 (truncated the pennies, sorry… I’m old that way. ).
Just to remind y’all, on Obama’s last full day, the DJIA closed at 19,742, meaning that… for the market… 3 more years of Republican economics, led by a man who bankrupted 5 casinos, has gained a whopping 446 nominal points.
Adjusted to 2016 dollars? Obama’s DJIA closed at 20,991.
20188
20991
803
So… in terms of 2016 dollars, the market is down 800 points since Trump took office.
This time however he caused the market to go down by telling the truth (for once.) We’ll still have a problem in the summer, nice of him to finally admit it. I don’t know why this was a surprise to some traders.
It’s not just the numbers; it’s the speed with which it’s all happening, and the timing couldn’t be worse: an election year.
I hate Trump like a motherfucker, but any president would be feeling the heat in this environment. I don’t blame Trump for the situation. Any president would be staring down the barrel of a recession in this case.
The difference between Trump and, well, George W Bush is that Bush realized that his ideology was no longer operable early enough to act, and since he was in his second term didn’t give two shits what his tea party nutjob radicals felt about his ‘flip flop’. I think Bush was largely a bad president, but he at least tried to be good, and this was because he cared about people other than himself.
Trump, on the other hand, is a total narcissist, and his entire party has drunk his kool aid. He will keep badgering the Fed. He will keep blaming Obama and Democratic governors and mayors for everything that he failed to do. He will live in his own reality until he gets thrown out of office. But understand that by the time that happens, it could be Herbert Hoover time.
That’s true, but most other presidents wouldn’t have called the virus a hoax and have repeatedly said that there was no problem. Most other presidents were somewhat trustworthy. Most other presidents provided leadership.
Part of the decline in markets - a large part, I think - is an admission by Wall St that the “strong” economy was the result of tricks like stock buybacks, many of which were leveraged (i.e. with borrowed money). Once there was an inkling of a looming demand crisis, the markets got exposed for the scam that they were.
Now that people are beginning to price in the real economic value of these companies and using that as a starting point to figure out how dire things may get, they are now trying to figure out just how bad things are going to get,
I have no idea who Saleha Mohsin is. Do I have any reason to trust her reporting or what Mnuchin said, or even if Mnuchin said it, if he has any idea what he’s talking about? IOW, any other sources on either the Mnuchin claim or that any sane modelers see 20% unemployment as a viable forecast?
The shit of it is…the industry as a whole is too big to fail. And so it continues: we’re forever trapped in this cycle of socializing corporate excesses and flushing those barely hanging on by a thread.
I get why Bernie voters want a revolution. We’ve gotten so used to being screwed by the plutocrats that it seems a revolution is the rational reaction to capitalism gone wild. In reality, we just need to fix the tax code, impose regulations, and insist that white collar criminals…go to fucking jail once in a while.
Seriously? You can’t click the profile to see she’s Bloomberg’s reporter covering the Treasury Department? Is Google broken where you live? Phone notifications turned off? :rolleyes:
ETA: that story has a lot more context too. Way better than a random tweet. This still seems like unverified administration spin (that unemployment might hit 20%, not that Mnuchin said it), though.
Well now this is really encouraging - reassures us all that Trump is on top of things and going to hire the best people to handle the response to COVID and the coming economic nosedive.
When there’s a coming economic crisis, who better to recruit the right personnel in the public sector than someone who was fired for unethical conduct and not even 30 years old. Better yet, hire someone who hires his buddies over qualified personnel.
I’ve been saying this for years: there is a reason socialism is popular again. It’s not random, it’s because the rich people are hijacking the world. They always do, but it’s worse some times than other times.
The airlines SHOULD be allowed to fail. A few big ones will go belly up. Tough shit. Soon enough they’ll be bought out by other airlines or investors who will fire up the same airplanes on the same routes and life will go on.
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