Stock Dive Is Bookend Of Bush Economics

The headline from the world of politics and economics today seems fairly self-evident: in the wake of the House of Representative's failure to pass a bailout package for Wall Street, the Dow dropped by the largest point margin in any single day in history.

But that number told only half the story. Indeed, much of what transpired on Wall Street and in the halls of politics put a bookend on what now seems to the final - poor - chapter of the Bush administration's economic record.

On Monday, the Dow finished lower than when George W. Bush assumed the presidency: 10,587.59 on January 19, 2001 compared to 10,365.45 at its close on September 29, 2008.

NASDAQ, the American stock exchange, too, was lower now than it was when Bush took office: 2770.38 on January 19, 2001 compared to 1983.73 on September 29, 2008. The dollar exchange with the Euro was lower than when Bush was elected: 1.068 on January 19, 2001 compared to .695 on September 29, 2008.

Some things have risen, but not the good economic indicators. The Consumer Price Index was at 175 on January 19, 2001 and 219 by September 29, 2008. Unemployment, meanwhile, stood at 4.2 percent when Bush came into power. Today, it is at 6.1 percent.

"It's a striking phenomenon," said Robert Shapiro, undersecretary of commerce during the Clinton White House years. "The reckless negligence and mismanagement of the country's financial markets by the White House, the Treasury and the Fed over the last several years has now produced a crisis that has wiped out all of the increase in the market value of America's companies from five years of record corporate profits, strong productivity gains, and reasonable growth. Bush has now run the table on presidential failure."

UPDATE: Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, doesn't disagree with the idea that the economy's struggles are evidence of Bush's failure. He just doesn't think the DOW's fall is the proper measurement.

"I actually consider it a plus,' he said of the tumble. "he stock market was still in a bubble when Bush took office. there is no public interest in an over-valued stock market. We have about 20,000 real measures that we can use to show how bad the economy has performed under President
Bush, the Dow is not one of them.

Comments

[Dreamers101]

****ALERT CAGING BY THE McCAIN CAMPAIGN***

The story is all over Progressive Talk Radio today about the McCain
campaign sending absentee ballot applications to registered democrats or
people that have donated to Obama's campaign. These ballots are
deliberately misleading and have postage paid return addresses that are
for an election clerk that is outside of your city or town. What this
will end up doing is either having your vote not counted, or if you
return one of these, they will cite you for election fraud, saying that
you already voted absentee. These ballots are only being sent out in
'purple states' and this is a big deal.. This is called voter caging,
and is a huge problem.

The McCain campaign is stealing this election as we speak. Please get
this information out to as many people as you can, and tell anyone you
know who has received one of these ballots that they need to contact
their city election clerk or the supervisor of elections immediately.
Also call the local media and let them know what is going on.

The main stream media is never going to cover this so we have to depend
on our ground campaign to get the word out to our voters.

[kay]

The way to protect voters is to educate them to protect themselves.

Nothing else works. They have to get off their a** and learn the rules in their state.

I wish it weren't so ,but it is. It's a big country, and the rules are different in all 50 states.

[GSMRaleigh]

The politicians just don't get us, the American taxpayer. But, Michael Scherer on Time.com sums it up perfectly:

"But those historians should not forget that roots of the failure predate the vote Monday, or even the mistakes of Wall Street. Years ago, the trust between the people and their politicians was broken. The credibility was lost. The reserve of goodwill went bankrupt. And when they needed it most, our nation's leaders found they had squandered their ability to exert influence over the people who chose them to lead. "

[Veratruth]

I'm thinking about all those rich folks who benefited from Bush's tax cuts. I wonder if they invested some of those extra dollars in the stock market.

[Parkhurst]

Congressman James Clyburn says congress in going on recess during this extreme crisis to respect the Jewish holiday. Unbelievable.

[ThunderclapNewman]

The Congress has recessed for The High Holy Days.
They do it every year.

[Parkhurst]

Yeah, but every year we don't have a once in a hudred year crisis to deal with. Are you seriously saying they should take a holiday when the economy is in danger of meltdown. Are you really saying that?

[SCG]

Bonehead is speaking, drop your fork.

[ThunderclapNewman]

And pick up your barf bag.

[SCG]

I'm starting to prefer him, to hearing snide Mc Cain.

[iluvsam]

The Dems need to emphasize that the MAIN reason people can not afford these mortgages is because they have LOST THEIR JOBS. We've lost 600,000 jobs under this administration this year alone (and only 9 months in). Michigan leads the nation in foreclosures...how many manufacturing jobs have been lost in Michigan? The next highest foreclosure rate is Florida. Florida leads in job losses for the last two years. I think the Dems need to hammer this point home. People want to blame the fact that people were getting mortgages that they couldn't afford. That is an issue, but MOST of those foreclosures are due to people who can't pay because they've lost their incomes.

[larazon]

That is absolutely positively one-hundred per cent right. The Repubs are trying to lay the blame on people who lost their jobs and whose incomes are lower thanks to this Administration's policies. They're trying to call hard-working Americans irresponsible. When it's the Repubs who are irresponsible for allowing their rich investment banking friends to speculate with hundreds of thousands of mortgages.

Please debunk this myth everywhere.

The fact is the Repubs are calling hard-working Americans irresponsible to take the heat off themselves.

[Zeje]

Lost jobs, and unexpected expenses -- such as medical expenses. No health care, no jobs ... and it's not as if the foreclosures have stopped -- they will continue, the job losses will continue, the high interest rates will continue, inflation will continue -- defaults on mortgages, student loans, car loans, credit cards - -will continue. Nothing is being done -- absolutely nothing -- to actually help the economy. The high rollers will get their multi million bailouts -- and the rest of America will suffer.

[Parkhurst]

INTERNATIONAL MARKETS ARE SURGING THIS MORNING!

See the front page of the NYT

[breakingnews]

FTSE 100 +20.54 +0.43% 4,839.31
XETRA-DAX -37.61 -0.65% 5,769.47
CAC 40 +3.86 +0.10% 3,957.34
HANG SENG +135.53 +0.76% 18,016.21
NIKKEI 225 -483.75
_____________

Woooooo looky....a surge!!

LOL! What a tooI!!

[reliant1]

Good they can come and buy us....

[mrJJ]

ROFLMAO sell into the bumps...

there is $596 trillion in derivatives debt (Thank You, Sen Gramm), over $2.5 trillion in credit card debt, and $58 trillion in credit default swaps

http://www.wallstreetdigest.com/hotline.php

[PODdem]

McCain just endorsed Obama's plan

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on Tuesday proposed that the revivied bailout plan include an increase in federal insurance on deposits from the current $100,000 to a beefed-up $250,000.

Obama calls it "a step that would boost small businesses, make our banking system more secure, and help restore public confidence in our financial system.

[kay]

They're actually now frightened of a run on the banks.

That's pretty incredible.

[ThunderclapNewman]

It's a legitimate fear, given the massive misunderstanding of the situation by the public.

Look at the liberals here on this blog, many of whom fail to grasp the severity of the problem, or the nature of the legislation.

Why do people insist that this is a bailout of Wall Street fat cats?----when it's a bailout of their neighborhood bank branch.

[ThunderclapNewman]

It's a legitimate fe ar, given the massive misunderstanding of the situation by the public.

Look at the liberals here, many of whom fail to grasp the severity of the problem, or the nature of the legislation.

Why do people insist that this is a bailout of Wall Street fat cats?----when it's a bailout of their neighborhood bank branch.

[reliant1]

They should be worried. There will be a run on banks.

This thing is just starting to move like an avalanche...while the gov't diddles around.

They'll be in for a big surprise by Friday when they find out there isn't anything left for them to save.

[scandals&skeletons]

Ammobob, try to read real slow, maybe you will get it.

If not for Phil Grtamms deregulation bill, which McCa in was the cheerleader for and Cl inton the enabler then the mortgage crisis would not have bled over into Brokerage houses and Insurance companies. The mortgage instruments could not have been sold to all types of different entities,
hence the mortgage problem would have been very isolated and would never have been so out of control.
You can post whatever B S you like but them there is the facts of why we are in this mess.
Period.

[MNmommy]

Clinton enabled to be sure, but it would have happened in February of 2001 if it hasn't been signed in December of 1999. It's important to point that out, I think.

[MNmommy]

Hadn't, not hasn't.

[BeyondGoodAndEvil]

Clinton didn't have a choice but to sign. By the time it passed, it was veto proof.

[aznurse]

Is this a good analogy?
Clinton unlocked the door, Gramm swung it open and Bush and cohorts robbed the house?

[Clairvaux]

Don't blind him with facts, skeleton.

[FatherWolf]

The best thing that Bush ever did was his failure to privatize Social Security.

[Clairvaux]

He will be warmly remembered for what he didn't do.

[kay]

I went to a town hall meeting on it.

Bush sent GOP House members out to sell it.

My rep was visibly frightened by the rage of older women by the end of that fiasco.

He basically ran out the back door.

[Zeje]

That's next

[larazon]

The Repubs are in a cold sweat. John McCain is toast, because he can't use distractions anymore to win this election. The American people have finally been woken up to reality and they will finally vote their pocketbook and their children's future.

This is headed for a landslide and with good reason. Sayonarra John McCain.

[Clairvaux]

On target.

The economy will dominate all subsequent discussion, and on the economy the Republicans have nothing to offer.

A politically bankrupt party.

[reliant1]

A politicaly bankrupt nation with a bankrupt treasury...and a President who just realized the massive extent of his failures.

[kay]

"Creeping socialism"

"Spitting on Ronald Reagan's grave"

Apparently, House conservatives didn't mean a word of it.

What they wanted was a pat on the back from Pelosi.

Sure. That sounds rational.

[ThunderclapNewman]

It is alarmingly typical of Republicans to place party ideology above country.

That's all it was.

Did you read Bob Herbert this morning?
One of his best.

[kay]

I did.

The big failure was (again) in communication. Bubble Boy can't talk, and either can McCain.

Conservatives think the ability to communicate DOES NOT MATTER in a democracy.

[Clairvaux]

The ReThugs don't give a rat @ss about our country.

[TocinoHumano]

Spitting on Reagan's grave? Where do I sign up for that?

[BeyondGoodAndEvil]

LOL

You know that's just their excuse. "Mommy wasn't nice enough."

Basically, they're Iiars.

[confuseddemocrat]

The Repubs are now backing away from the claim that they voted against the bill because of Nancy's speech

I guess some Lilliputian mind realized that that excuse will get them spanked on Nov 4.

Republicans should remember Sir Newt and the government shut down in 1995-6 when the Americans blamed the republicans

Since some say Newt helped with the no vote yesterday, I think 1996 redux is going to happen again

[kay]

He's like a freaking disease.

Even unelected, he runs the conservatives in the House?

What does that say about THEM?

[Clairvaux]

Yup Yup

[SCG]

Marcy Kaptur is on C-SPAN

[kay]

She's great. Unfortunately, she doesn't have the clout she merits because she's clean as a whistle and doesn't bring home bacon.

I feel like it's "her time" though :)

[ThunderclapNewman]

I think she'll rise to the occasion after Obama is in office.

[Freedomscap]

Yes, and she is saying that there is an alternative way to deal with the credit crunch -- altering the rules for the SEC, by the president.

Thus, this bill wasn't necessary and/or isn't the only way to resolve the issue of the credit crunch.

[anothergreenbus]

The Bush Bubble Bursts!
Obama wins by a landslide.
The work to save our country begins.