Posted by
Sawgrass Jim on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 12:00:00 AM
It is always interesting to recognize trends and to study history. As a student of both politics and of Wall Street I find it particularly interesting to review the recent past, particularly when it comes to political agendas and the media coverage surrounding it.
As it is often said, "people vote their pocketbooks." And the most oft quoted line of elections of the past may well be "Its the economy stupid." Therefore it goes without saying that it may be in their interest to "follow the money" when deciding who has served your pocketbook and ergo your retirement future more efficiently before pulling the lever at the polls.
Most Americans have investments which involve the stock market. Individuals may have non qualified accounts, IRA's, pensions, government retirement programs ( Calpers) or some combination of these and are therefore affected by the nuances of the securities markets.
If this is the case it might be important to review some of that more recent history.
From January 2003 through January 2007 - 4 years - Republican Bill Frist of Tenn. was the Senate Majority Leader. During that time of 4 years the Dow Jones Industrial Average had losing days of 100 points or more 82 times. Of those times the market lost over 200 points 4 times and over 300 points once. The Dow Jones Average rose during this time from 8,723 to 12,556.
Since taking over control of both the House and the Senate by the Democrats in 2007 a little over 1 year now, the market has experienced 50 days with losses of over 100 points, 23 days of losses over 200 points and 7 days of losses over 300 points. Make that 24 days now over 200 points down another 214 today.
Quick review: Through March 6, 2008
4 years Republican control
1 year 3 months Democratic control
losses over Republican Democratic
100 points 82 50
200 point 4 23 now 24
300 points 1 7
Worst days of the Dow: under Democratic control
03/06/08 - 214
02/29/08 - 315
02/05/08 - 370
01/17/08 - 306
01/15/08 - 277
01/11/08 - 246
01/08/08 - 238
01/02/08 - 220
12/11/07 - 294
11/26/07 - 237
11/19/07 - 218
11/09/07 - 223
11/07/07 - 360
11/01/07 - 362
09/07/07 - 249
08/28/07 - 280
08/14/07 - 207
08/09/07 - 387
08/03/07 - 281
07/31/07 - 208
07/26/07 - 311
07/24/07 - 226
03/13/ 07 - 242
02/27/07 - 416
Dow Jones Average :
Republican control Democratic control
start 8,723 12,582
end 12,582 12,128 at 11:14 am
today 03/06/2008
Gain/ Loss + 3,859 - 454
+ 44.23% - 3.6%
"This is not a coincidence. The Bush 2001 and 2003 tax cuts were phased in over a period of a few years and the full positive economic impact was realized in the subsequent 4 years. Ever since the Dem's took control of Congress in 2007 they have waged war against these tax cuts. Their passion is to raise capital gains and dividend taxes. This anti-business mentality is discouraging investments and dragging the market down." - John Hopkins - my uncle
Under the Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid leadership the markets and the wealth of America is negative. Equity in home values hit their lowest since 1954. Under a Republican controlled Senate of Bill Frist the markets grew by 44%. I don't know about you but the next time I hear some Democratic Candidate start to tell me how bad the economy is I might want to remind them...It wasn't doing badly when the Republicans controlled Washington.
And we were fighting the war all through that time period as well.
Under the "cut and run" policy endorsed by Democrat's there will be savings initially... right up till the next terrorist attack. And then we can experience for the second time since 09/11/2001 an economy that falls through the roof, unemployment that sky rockets, and more finger pointing about who's fault is is this time.