History Doesn’t Begin When Trump Tweets — Stock Market Edition

Trump likes to brag when the stock market hits a new high. Let’s put Trump’s boasting into perspective.

Most Americans aren’t benefiting from this run up in the stock market. Approximately 45% of Americans own no stock at all. 10% of Americans own 84% of stock shares.

Now let’s take a little trip down memory lane. History doesn’t begin when Trump posts a tweet. GOP propaganda depends upon voter amnesia. Our duty as Democrats is to refresh voter memories.

As we all know, the stock market collapsed during the Bush Administration and the economy was in danger of falling into a depression when Barack Obama took office. On March 3, 2009, President Obama presciently said: “What you’re now seeing is profit-and-earnings ratios are starting to get to the point where buying stocks is a potentially good deal if you’ve got a long-term perspective on it.”

The Republicans ridiculed Obama’s advice and unfairly blamed him for the poor state of the economy. On March 6, 2009, former George W. Bush economic adviser Michael Boskin responded to President Obama in an op-ed where he contended that: “Obama’s radicalism is killing the Dow… It’s hard not to see the continued sell-off on Wall Street and the growing fear on Main Street.”

Boskin’s prediction turned out to be way off the mark and was labeled the “worst op-ed in history” by the Washington Post in 2014.

After Obama and Boskin called their shot on the stock market in early 2009, the stock market rose like a rocket:

Let’s recap the Obama record. On March 3, 2009, the Dow closed around 6,700. The Dow hit the even lower point of 6,549 on March 9, 2009. The Dow Jones closed at 24,782.29 on December 22, 2017 — the day Trump signed into law the tax cuts.

What this means then is that the Dow rose from around 6,700 to 24,800 when Obama’s policies were in place. In other words, the Dow more than tripled. Before 2018, we were living under Obama’s policies.

This ten year economic expansion that Trump likes to brag about is currently only benefiting the wealthy and the upper middle class. Most of the country is being left behind. Middle class wages are rising a paltry 1.3% after being adjusted for inflation. This falls far short of the $4,000.00 pay raise that Trump promised the middle class when his failed tax cuts became law two years ago.

By every metric set forth by the GOP, Trump’s economic policies are a failure. Like I said, middle class wages are barely growing. Actual job creation is down 20% since Obama left office. The promised investment boom has fizzled out. We were promised 4% GDP growth but GDP is only growing 2%. Trump and the Republicans promised us that the tax cuts would pay for themselves but the D.C. Republicans have nearly doubled the annual deficit to $1 trillion.

If you want a change of direction, vote Democratic in 2020. The last two Democratic presidents presided over middle class wage growth, explosive job creation and a reduction in poverty. History demonstrates that the economy performs better under a Democratic president. As Harry Truman said: “If you want to live like a Republican, you’ve got to vote for a Democrat.”