The Trump Economy is Finally Here

Well, here we are.  As I write this, the New York Stock Exchange has just closed for the day, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average standing at 19,898, essentially exactly the 19,827 that it was the day that Donald Trump took over from Barack Obama, whose two terms saw the Dow increase by 280%.  At its low, the market fell below 19,000, in what has been described as the fastest descent into a bear market in history, representing a 33% decrease in the total value of the stock market in under five weeks.

I want to make what I feel is an important point about this collapse; and that is that, contrary to popular perception (aided of course by the mainstream media,) this collapse has not been primarily caused by the coronavirus pandemic.  To understand this, we can look at the behavior of the stock market during previous pandemics, and that is what I want to do now.  Here are the major pandemics since 1900, and their effect on the stock market:

H1N1 Flu:  This is the most recent epidemic we have experienced, running from April 15, 2009 to August, 2009.  During that time, the Dow Jones average went from 8,130 to 9,500.

SARS:  This epidemic ran from November, 2002 to July, 2003.  During that time, the Dow went from 8,800 to 10,550.

Asian Flu:  This epidemic ran from February, 1957 to March, 1958, during which the Dow went from 4333 to 4080, a modest loss during a period of industrial recession.

Hong Kong Flu:  This epidemic ran from July, 1968 into 1970.  This is the only epidemic that saw significant market decline during its course.  As can be seen from the following chart, this was, however, in the context of a long term stock market decline, which lasted from January, 1966 to July, 1982.




And even in the greatest pandemic in modern times, the 1918 Spanish Flu:

"...the impact of the Spanish Flu on the stock market was minimal. If you look at the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 1918 and 1919, you can see that the stock market was relatively unaffected by any of the three waves of the Spanish flu."

And what is the implication of this information?  Now, I am going to act like an internet loony and put my conclusion in big red letters:

THE COLLAPSE OF THE STOCK MARKET WAS NOT CAUSED BY THE CORONAVIRUS.  IT WAS CAUSED BY THE TOTAL LACK OF FAITH IN ANY RATIONAL HUMAN BEING IN DONALD TRUMP'S CAPACITY TO DEAL WITH A SERIOUS CRISIS. 

This is the truth, and we must hang this truth around Trump's neck like a noose.  He will try every means possible to lie his way out of responsibility for what is happening, and if we allow him to get away with it, he will lie his way into a second term, which this country will not survive.

As evidence of this (if any is needed at this point) about a week ago, anticipating that the day would come when I would have to write this post, I bookmarked the Twitter archive page which contained all of Trump's bragging over the last three years about how he deserved all the credit for the stock market going up.  There were dozens of egomaniacal, narcissistic tweets bragging about himself.  I was going to list a couple of them in this post, but when I went today to that page, here is what I found:

Nothing.  The entire history of Trump's bragging has been erased, in an act that would have gotten quite a laugh from George Orwell.


And finally, here is a chart of the Stock Market, over the last 25 years or so.  You can see from this that the real surge of the stock market started almost immediately when Barack Obama took office, after the catastrophic collapse in the previous Republican administration, and was so strong that it lasted three years into the Trump administration, before his incompetence and criminality finally caused the inevitable.


It is Obama, not Trump, who gave us the last three good economic years, economic stability which Trump has now completely destroyed.  That is the truth that should never be forgotten, no matter how he lies about it, and how his evil party try to shout it down.

Let me be clear:  This country is now far more in danger of a massive depression than it is from the coronavirus.  And the sole cause of this is the Republican party and their leader, Donald Trump. 

Comments

Flying Junior said…
The president is very serious about getting money in the pockets of the American people. We mean in the next two weeks. To accomplish this, President Trump will be asking for $1,000,000,000,000 from the congress of the United States effective immediately. It is not clear how the federal government intends to raise one trillion dollars. Some are toying with the idea of selling of the gold in Fort Knox.

Not an awkward number like $650,000,000,000, but a nice round number. One trillion dollars. It has a nice balance to it, doesn't it? One followed by twelve zeroes. One times ten to the twelfth power. I say it's doable. If we pay back just $500 million every year for 2,000 years the debt is paid off in full. What do you say? Let Trump have his moment in the sun. I'm sure that he will apply the money where the need is greatest.
bt1138 said…
"I'm sure he will apply the money where the need is greatest"

-->Let's go with that.

Trump will try and steer every dollar to the States who voted for him or might vote for him. Like he's going to do when TX, PA and WI and MI need help. He's not going to waste anything on California or Washington State or New York, you can see it in his recent behavior and from how he's dealt with these crises in the past. It won't be a crisis until red states need help and then he'll fawn all over his voters who love him so much. And naturally, Puerto Rico can continue to go fuck itself.

Because Donald Trump has never been anything more than the President of the people who voted for him.

----

Anywho, the market is down for a lot of reasons but mostly a correction is way overdue, particularly with the way The Trump GOP has just kept goosing it along with tax cuts and deficit spending. The debt keeps the building up, the prices keep bubbling up, and the longer the music keeps playing the more twitchy the markets become.

Coronavirus is the sell signal that the markets have been waiting for, for the last few years.
seafury said…
I made the mistake of questioning trumps response to pandemic and his ever changing story. A couple of my co workers had this to say " he hasn't lied to the American people the lame stream media has lied. How come no one ever questioned Obama's role in the swine flu and all the deaths he caused ? Huh HUH? Hate to break it to you but Hillary lost!!! " how does one respond to that? Oh and their IRA's haven't lost a dime thanks to trump. That's another big lie. And these guys drive tractor trailers up and down 'Muricas highways. I end up staring into my coffee......
Green Eagle said…
Azucena, are you sure you are not from Nigeria?
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