After almost two years of "socialism": S&P +58%; DJIA +47%; Nasdaq +87%

[sledgehammer]

Imagine if a repug president had been in charge, he'd be hailed as the savior of the free market, the great creator of wealth, blah blah.

Just for contrast, here are Bush's equivalent numbers after two years in charge: S&P: -34.6%; DJIA: -21.4%; Nasdaq: -50.7%

Detailed numbers are below. Values taken at close of business after first full day in charge (source: http://www.davemanuel.com/where-did-the-djia-nasdaq-sp500-trade-on.php).

BUSH
****

1/22/2001

DJIA: 10578.24
Nasdaq: 2757.91
S&P 500: 1342.54

1/22/2003

DJIA: 8318.73 (-21.4%)
Nasdaq: 1359.48 (-50.7%)
S&P 500: 878.36 (-34.6%)


OBAMA
*****

1/20/2009

DJIA: 7949.09
Nasdaq: 1440.86
S&P 500: 805.22

1/3/2011

DJIA: 11670.75 (+46.8%)
Nasdaq: 2691.52 (+86.8%)
S&P 500: 1271.89 (+58.0)

[Statistical]

1. Not a peep from talking heads on CNBC about this.

Will be interesting to compare at the exact 2 year mark. Likely in the top 10% of all 2 yr returns.

[panader0]

2. Gotta rec this.

[prolesunited]

3. As I recall, the market did quite well under that other socialist

Bill Clinton. :eyes:

[Ruby the Liberal]

5. As well as FDR

[bluestate10]

4. Democratic spokespeople did not do a good selling job.

New voices will be driving the message in 2012.

[sledgehammer]

7. Yes I would say that's the biggest administrative failure of the last two years

Not being able to market all the successes. I hope he can incorporate some selling in his SOTU speech.

[blondeatlast]

6. Whatever do you mean? The m$m was all over

the "Green Hornet" this morning. :banghead:

[sledgehammer]

8. Haha!

If the movie bombs, they'll probably blame it on Obama!

[BlueCheese]

9. Unemployment rate: +27.3%

I'm not saying that the spike in unemployment is Obama's fault--clearly the trend was upwards before he was inaugurated. But if we're honest, we wouldn't claim all the credit for the rise in stock prices, either. After all, the market fell off a cliff in October 2008 and was bound to recover.

[Change Happens]

10. Where did you get 27%?

[BlueCheese]

11. From 7.7% in January 2009 to 9.8% today...

... is a rise of 27%.

[Change Happens]

12. WTF?

[BlueCheese]

14. Don't be fooled by the % marks in the unemployment rate.

Suppose you had $7.70 in a bank account. In a year it grew to $9.80. What interest rate did you earn?

[sledgehammer]

13. True

Not saying this is some amazing achievement that tops all the country's problems. But just making the case that had a repug been in charge of this stock market increase, it would be credited to his "great" economic policies.

Also, I remember people talking about Dow hitting 5000 after Obama came in, and that stock market recovery would take forever. The pace of stock market recovery has been astounding. It's unfortunate the recovery of the real economy (jobs, income, housing) has not followed suit. Hopefully 2011 will be the year the turnaround begins.

[BlueCheese]

15. In that case...

... yes, I agree with your point. I do remember when the market took a dive right after Obama was sworn in, the GOP was blaming him for it. Naturally they haven't given him any credit for the bounceback. It's just the way they are.

[Change Happens]

16. This is Obamanomics at its best!!!

A tremendous effort getting us back to these levels.

Obama will go down in history as the best EVER President at managing an economy in crisis!!!

[truedelphi]

24. As long as everyone NOT in the investor class doesn't

Start complaining about how we have been sold out, along with our kids and grand kids and great grand kids to boot.

The Commons was taken from Main Street and offered up to the Wall Street moguls. With full support of the handful of people that are involved with the day to day activity of those financial doings.

Eleven trillion and counting, but not to fear - there is still that lush 2.1 trillion dollar surplus fund called Social Security just sitting there achingly waiting to be plucked away from those on Main Street who have invested in it.

[girl gone mad]

17. Socialism for the rich = Corporate Communism.

That's exactly what we've got now. Use the public purse to bail out Wall Street and the multinational corporations while simultaneously trashing middle class protections.

My heart breaks for the young people of this nation.

[zbdent]

18. I had a similar line of thinking ...

The Repugs were probably set to crow about the 200 point jump in the Dow right after they won control of the house ... if it hadn't been for the nearly equal drop right after that ... and the dow and nasdaq have been relatively flat since ...

Using the Dow as the example, I wanted to point out that, if the Repugs are going to take credit for "doing a better job than Obama", their effect on the Dow would have to be better than Obama's had been.

(remember the "Gore is killing the stock market! Make him concede!" cries? And then, after the election was "decided", the dow started its downward spiral?)

The day Obama was elected, the Dow closed at $9,625.28.

Election day 2010, the Dow closed at $11,188.72, a positive change of $1,563.44

To be comparable, the Dow would have to rise to $13,006.11 by the 2012 election for them to even "break even" against Obama. (If my calculations are correct).

Don't forget, the Dow was still descending after the 2008 election, and hit a low shortly (1/20/2009 - $7,949.09, 3/9/2009 - $6,547.05) after Obama took office. (Calculating in the Bush43 spin of "Hey, look how Bush recovered from 9/11! You can't compare his elected/took office number to his exit number!")

So, from the rock bottom (in Obama's turn) closing of $6,547.05 to the day the Repugs "won" (70 percent improvement), the Repugs would actually have to attain a Dow of, I believe, $19,121.20, to say that they did as good as Obama (and the Dems) did.

[AlabamaLibrul]

19. I guess I'm the only one who's not thrilled with more for the rich while UE is where it is

end of transmission

[Godhumor]

21. Stock market helps a lot more people than just the rich

Just sayin'.

[sledgehammer]

22. Yes

Pensions, 529s, endowments, etc. invest heavily in the market.

Plus, an improved market means that companies are generally doing better i.e. their anticipated returns in the future are expected to improve. This can only help the job market, though that hasn't happened so far (mass layoffs are down though, but that's scant consolation). However, a declining or stagnant market would have been absolutely disastrous for the economy.

[Bigmack]

20. All that "socialism" bullshit is just for the ..

Teabaggers and Hannutty listeners.

The Powers That Be know that all those WS insiders in the Administration are committed to the brand of fuck-the-workers capitalism.

"Socialism" is the shiny object waved in front of the information-deprived.

[slipslidingaway]

23. +100 n/t