1/19/01 Oil $32;Gold $264;DOW 10,587. 1/20/06 Oil $66;Gold $567;DOW 10,667

[Lefty48197]

I just thought this might be a short way to sum up some economic indicators and their price ranges from the day Bush took office five years ago, until today.
The price of a barrel of oil has more than doubled since GWB took office. The price of gold has more than doubled since GWB took office, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has flat-lined since GWB took office.

Yer doin' a heck of a job, 'Brownie'.


List of spot crude oil closings per barrel since the 1980's.

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/rwtcd.htm

Search historical Dow Jones Industrial Average closings for any date:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=%5EDJI

Search spot gold closing prices for any date:

http://www.onlygold.com/TutorialPages/SearchPricesFS.asp

[skipos]

1. No surprise. The stockmarket does better under democratic presidents

and that is a fact.

[unblock]

4. true, but it's usually not quite this obvious.

the dow contrast between clinton and shrub is staggering.

[flvegan]

2. For me, these stopped being economic indicators the day he took office.

Oil, gold and the Dow are contrived.

I'm not belittling a very, very valid point and post, I'm just stating my opinion.

I appreciate the facts, and will save them for when they're needed. Thank you.

[WePurrsevere]

3. Both interesting and frightening... I don't watch gold or the DOW much but

the oil price concerns me on a more personal level.

I don't recall what our heating oil prices were 5 yrs ago but what I do know is that last year this time we were paying about 70 - 75 cents less per gallon for heating oil... 200 gals was about $350. and now 200 gals is about $500. Gas prices have also increased dramatically which has impacted our grocery food costs and electric bill.

One of the things that Dems truly need to do is push the question... Are you truly better off then you were 5 yrs ago? Are your friends and family members? Are you able to set aside more or less money in a savings account? Are you more secure in your job or less? Are you more or less secure in knowing that your pensions will be there when you're ready to retire? The fact is that the economy was much better under Dem control... we need to get the message out that Dems can bring back the prosperity and security we had before the Republicans blew it for the majority of Americans.

[Warpy]

5. Better watch gold, too, because gold holds its purchasing power

very steadily when fiat currencies are fluctuating wildly, either inflating or deflating. In other words, an increase in the price of gold will give you a pretty good idea of what the real (not the fiddled, artificially low) inflation rate is and what it's been over the last three years.

They diddle the inflation rate by taking items OUT of the market basket and replacing them with things that artificially underpriced because the jobs to make them have been outsourced and offshored.

That twit Schieffer nearly gave the game away last month when he said "Gee, if you take away food and energy costs, the inflation rate is really low." Well, duh. What are the subsistence items, Bobby? Hint: they're not the flat screen TVs from Korea.

So keep an eye on that price of gold and you'll have a much better idea of what the real inflation rate is, and knowledge is power. We have little enough power in this country, we can use all we can get.

[WePurrsevere]

6. You have an excellent point. I seem to remember in the 70's gold went wild

and inflation was pretty bad.

I think I heard someone else make a similar comment to Schieffer last Fall... must be nice to be able to not be concerned enough to include those.

You're right also about "knowledge is power". I have long felt that is very true and try to learn as much as I can about subjects that are important to me. That said I truly should try to relearn what little I had learned years ago about economics. :)

[Art_from_Ark]

7. The '70s were a little different from today

On the one hand, all restrictions on private ownership of gold bullion in the US were removed on December 31, 1974, by then-President Ford, so this released pent-up demand for gold bars and new gold coins (it was always legal to hold "old gold" coins).

On the other hand, the US had completely disowned itself from any linkages between precious metals and its fiat currency in 1971, when the Gold Standard was given its final coffin nail, and the Kennedy half dollar made its first appearance as the last of America's traditionally silver coins to be made completely out of worthless base metal. Inflation took off right after that, and was compounded by rising wages (back when almost everything was "Made in USA") and the oil crises, first in 1973-74 and again in 1979.

Another watershed event of 1979 was the Hunt Brothers' attempt to corner the silver market, and perhaps there was some ripple effect from this in the gold market. At any rate, both markets reached their respective pinnacles around January 1980, and have been nowhere near there since. Now gold is reaching 25-year highs (but still nowhere near its all-time high), and silver is wriggling toward the $10 level, which is still only 20% of its 1980 peak.