Obama and the Stock Market: A Year Later

Actually it’s more than  a year, but let’s look back.  You’ll recall that, after the inauguration ball balloons deflated, the Republicans started to blame the stock market collapse on Obama, or at the very least, they pointed to the stock market as proof that American business did not believe in Obama’s politics.  They pointed to the Dow, as of March 3 of last year, being down 30% since Obama’s election and 15% since Obama’s inauguration.

So where are we today, 17 months after the president’s election and not quite 15 months after his inauguration:

Since his election, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 14%.

Since his inauguration, the DJIA is up 38%.

So why isn’t the GOP giving him credit now?

(Thanks to the “Ed Show” on MSNBC for reminding me of this.)

Comments

[Bob Griendling]

I did not write the post with an obvious wink and a nod. I should have. I think no one knows how much an impact a presidency can have on the market. Was the bailout successful in restoring investor confidence? I'm not even sure that's true, much less whether another strategy that allowed big companies to fail would have any more successful. That said, you can't argue with success vis-a-vis the stock market.

The post is one of a couple over the last year tweaking those who blamed Obama for the stock market's decline. I think the criticsm of him back last February and March was silly, and I'm not sure he gets any credit for the stock market's recovery except in the sense that he assured stock traders (not investors) that government had their backs.

[CR UVa]

Because every President will receive the entirety of success or failure with the economy, it is obvious why this happens. But it is also very easy to note that if you had written a post like this in the middle of February last year, you would've been dismayed at noting a DJIA that had dropped 2000 points since getting elected.

The economy goes up, and it goes down; realistically, the President should receive a lot less credit. Rather than trying to play the same political games you complain about others using, maybe you could give some evidence as to why President Obama may be responsible for a bull market. Hot air certainly isn't the sole domain of one party or the other.