Obama One Of Five Presidents To See Dow Jones Gain More Than 50 Percent Over First Three Years

President Obama just joined an exclusive club.

He is one of only five presidents to see the Dow Jones Industrial Average gain 50 percent or more through his first three years in office, according to a report from Bespoke Investment Group. Obama, who has overseen a 60 percent gain in the Dow since taking office, joins two Democrats, Bill Clinton and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and two Republicans, Calvin Coolidge and Dwight D. Eisenhower in the club.

Republican presidential candidates and other critics have derided Obama for not doing enough to help businesses during his tenure. But the evidence may prove otherwise. As of early November, Wall Street firms had earned more under Obama than during all eight years of George W. Bush's presidency, even as he's slammed bankers as "fat cats."

Still, one reason Obama may have seen such large gains during his tenure may be because he took over shortly after a particularly rough period for the stock market. After Congress initially rejected the government’s $700 billion bank bailout program, the Dow saw what at the time was its largest single-day loss ever on September 29, 2008. Obama took office on less than four months later.

Obama has overseen some market volatility of his own over the course of his presidency. The stock market experienced violent swings last August as Standard and Poor's downgraded the United States' credit rating after officials agreed to raise the nation's debt limit at the last minute. The debt crisis brewing in Europe also contributed to stock market volatility.

Though the last three-odd years have seen good gains on the stock market so far, it may have little bearing on whether he gets reelected if past presidential elections are any indication. The opposite has also proven true in the past. After the infamous Black Monday stock market crash in October 1987 in which the Dow Jones lost almost 23 percent of its value, then-President Ronald Reagan saw his approval rating actually jump two points, according to Gallup data cited by The New York Times.

Comments

[THE KOOG]

08:45 PM on 01/26/2013

Typical liberals with NO clue or business sense. I'll give Obama credit for the Dow, in the fact he has done NOTHING. What is wrong with you liberals? If there is no silver lining, we'll make up one? Do me a favor, and Google these two words verbatim: (Obama, Dow Jones) then look at the results..

[rkimball]

12:55 PM on 01/30/2012

Proof Obama's economic policies are working.

[gochenaur8]

05:36 PM on 05/25/2013

Now if congress would work with Obama on job bills, things may just get better.

[Jon LoGotti]

06:39 PM on 01/29/2012

This article is ridiculous. The stock market started to rise at QE1 and mark to market were suspended. The FED is what caused the stock market to rise, not Obama. Also, corporate profits are what lift stock prices so if a corporation is cutting jobs and shipping them overseas, and therefore are accumulating more profits, exactly how is that good for our economy. The stock market has become a rigged game controlled by the highest players and high frequency trading. Most retail investors on a net basis have seen mutual fund outflows since last year so its not the retail investor pumping up the market as volume is extremely low relative to the days during the bubble. Everyday Americans don't trust the markets anymore or find them too risky to invest. Equities are the worse way to judge economic activity as most corporations increase their bottom line by firing employees or not raising wages which are good for shareholders but not the overall economy. The rick disproportionately benefit from capital gains such as stock prices so I don't know why credit is given to Obama or any president when it is the FED and corporate profits that generate higher returns.

[LordBeaker]

03:09 PM on 06/11/2012

"Also, corporate profits are what lift stock prices so if a corporation is cutting jobs and shipping them overseas, and therefore are accumulating more profits, exactly how is that good for our economy."

I have no idea.... so your thought is to what? replace him with someone who wishes to send more jobs overseas?

[Thaddeusgadfly]

07:41 PM on 07/20/2012

History has proven that the stock market has done better Democratic presidents. You can attribute it to anything you want, except Republican Presidents.

If I were only a betting man just looking at math, and nothing else, I'd pick a Democratic president, if my desire was to improve the economy.

[Jon LoGotti]

04:10 PM on 07/21/2012

And that would be an awful strategy. For the simple fact that anyone could have made more money by getting out at the right time like in 2007 (ES record highs) when there were signs of stress in the lending markets. Anyone who bases their financial strategy or gives credit for market performance primarily to a president or party prob shouldn't be investing. The 12 year returns on the S&P have been flat, even if ES is up over 100% under Obama. After Clinton left office and the Nasdaq bubble popped, NADQ plunged by over 60%. Anyone who takes their money out every time parties change is missing so many oppotunities in between. More important to the markets are the FED and profits: without those two it doesn't matter whos in office. Correlation isn't causation

[ssnt]

05:28 PM on 01/25/2012

LOL, are you kidding?

How much money did the other Presidents print to do this?

[traceymarie]

05:32 PM on 01/25/2012

lol, are you kidding

How many times are you going to deny the repub crash

[ssnt]

05:38 PM on 01/25/2012

Please respond to me and then I will respond to you.

[davedarby]

11:47 AM on 08/13/2012

$2.5T GW printed for the Bush Tax Cuts
$3.5T GW printed for unsubstantiated wars/democracy-building in the Middle East to-date

Let's see - that's $6.0T in new debt that we've been reeling and dealing with for 4 years as the national debt rose from $5.7T to $10.6T - an increase in $4.9T or +86.0% - an out of control freight train.

DJIA on Jan 19 2001 = 10587.59
DJIA on Jan 20, 2009 = 8279.63

That's a loss of 2307.96 or -21.8%. Does printing money really correlate to DJIA or is it still about corporate profits/speculation?

[gwbsucs1]

11:37 AM on 01/25/2012

He is one of only five presidents to see the Dow Jones Industrial Average gain 50 percent or more through his first three years in office, according to a report from Bespoke Investment Group. Obama, who has overseen a 60 percent gain in the Dow since taking office, joins two Democrats, Bill Clinton and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and two Republicans, Calvin Coolidge and Dwight D. Eisenhower in the club. ----------------------hmmm pretty impressive group , givin that the two demos mentioned had a republican president predessor as well as one pug prez follwing that left the country in financial straights when leavin office and one of the republicans mentioned had led us into the great depression because of their laissez-faire government - sound familiar ? as a matter of fact - read the bio on Calvin Cooledges' adminstration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Coolidge - after I had read it - the only republican candidate that came to mind was MItt Romney

[Dane Calderon]

04:11 PM on 09/14/2012

Well stated and well researched. Thanks for that!

[BIGTERRA]

10:21 AM on 01/25/2012

For those who are listening to the liberals propagating the fallacy that everything is "Bush's Fault", think about this:

January 3rd, 2007, the day the Democrats took over the Senate and the Congress:
The DOW Jones closed at 12,621.77 today it's 12,587
The GDP for the previous quarter was 3.5%
The Unemployment rate was 4.6%
George Bush's Economic policies SET A RECORD of 52 STRAIGHT MONTHS of JOB CREATION!

Barney Frank took over the House Financial Services Committee and Chris Dodd took over the Senate Banking Committee. The economic meltdown that happened 15 months later was in what part of the economy? BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES!

THANK YOU DEMOCRATS (especially Barney ) for taking us from 13,000 DOW, 3.5 GDP and 4.6%Unemployment...to this CRISIS by dumping 5-6 TRILLION Dollars of toxic loans on the economy from YOUR Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac FIASCOES! (BTW: Bush asked Congress 17 TIMES to stop Fannie & Freddie -starting in 2001 because it was financially risky). Barney blocked it and called it a "Chicken Little Philosophy"

And who took the THIRD highest pay-off from Fannie Mae AND Freddie Mac?

OBAMA

And who fought against reform of Fannie and Freddie?
OBAMA and the Democrat Congress, especially BARNEY FRANK!!!!

[thejazz]

11:28 AM on 01/25/2012

what policies did Barney Frank put in place that caused the crises? If you want to blame somebody, start with Greenspan.

[gwbsucs1]

11:38 AM on 01/25/2012

still your in denial - the root cause of the mortgage crisis started long before 2007

[BIGTERRA]

12:16 PM on 01/25/2012

Yers, mit actually started with Carter...who was almost as big failure and incompeteny as Obama.

[Dane Calderon]

04:12 PM on 09/14/2012

The root cause of the collapse was investment banking, which was illegal until 2000. .... the more you know...

[BIGTERRA]

10:16 AM on 01/25/2012

who caused the country's financial crisis?

http://www.americanrationale.com/Financial-crisis.html

[gwbsucs1]

11:53 AM on 01/25/2012

a right winged hack of a website that claims its unbiased - try again

[BIGTERRA]

12:07 PM on 01/25/2012

You mesmerized and misled libs will deny anything that smacks of the truth about Barak Husein SORTERO Obama's and his fellow thugs in his administration's incompetence and corruption!

Just consider some of Obama's lies....and the ignorance of Nancy Pelosi!

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/08/24/video-promises-promises-2/

[XtfrM2]

03:07 PM on 01/30/2012

"a right winged hack of a website that claims its unbiased - try again”

You got that right. The one-man brain trust of this lau.ghable site doesn't appear to understand the difference between "rational" and rationale."
From the About Us link on his site:
"The name AmericanRationale comes from the combination of my being a proud "American" and the fact that, of the four Temperaments that we find in psychology, I fall into the category of the "Rationale".
http://www.americanrationale.com/AboutUs.html

Hilarious.

[john649]

04:18 PM on 01/25/2012

WTF IS THAT?? Looks like crazed site posted by the Westboro Church!!!

[BIGTERRA]

05:02 PM on 01/26/2012

The truth really bothers you brain-dead libs doesn't it?

[BIGTERRA]

10:05 AM on 01/25/2012

Figures don't lie, but liars figure.

[KarateKid]

10:54 PM on 01/24/2012

And, here the Republicans cry about how bad Obama is for business.

*dripping, no, sopping wet with sarcasm*

[ssnt]

05:30 PM on 01/25/2012

You are embarrassing yourself.

[KarateKid]

05:32 PM on 01/25/2012

Nice try. You have to do better, a con who comes to a Progressive site and tries to convince us of the errors of our ways. You have a better chance of converting _Muslims to _Judaism. Keep wasting your time.

[AdamMNChange]

03:04 PM on 01/27/2012

This is what I hate about the left/right paradigm. Otherwise intelligent people are reduced to name calling & child like behavior. I'm just as guilty but getting better at it. On the topic of Obama and the economy, however, check this out: http://newworldorderreport.com/News/tabid/266/ID/9391/President-Obama-Mentions-An-Energy-Company-In-His-Big-Speech-And-It-Goes-Bankrupt-Instantly.aspx Copy & past to your browser if clicking doesn't work but there's reality.

[KarateKid]

04:08 PM on 01/27/2012

Excuse me, but re-read my comment. Where is the name calling?

[Georgia Yankee]

07:44 PM on 01/24/2012

So if the Dow was originally down by 50% and then it rose by 50%, that means it's still down 25% right?

[M Grey]

07:51 PM on 01/24/2012

Correct!

[AdamMNChange]

03:05 PM on 01/27/2012

No it means the money doesn't go as far due to inflation.

[AdamMNChange]

05:44 PM on 01/24/2012

All of it, and I do mean ALL OF IT, a result of the Federal Reserve's ability to create counterfeit. NONE of this is reflective of sound economic/monetary policy. EVERY CENT was created out of debt that must one day be paid back. That day fast approaches. What will they do? Turn to the Federal Reserve to create more! This will further devalue YOUR savings just as it did under Bush before him, Clinton before him, Bush Sr. before him, Reagan before him, Carter before him, Ford before him, Nixon before him, Johnson before him, etc, etc, so forth and on... This is how they lie to ALL of you and keep you under the spell of the false left/right paradigm, bickering and arguing with one another about Republicrats vs. Demoplicans and how Ron Paul is unelectable etc, etc...

[M Grey]

07:53 PM on 01/24/2012

Even though I think his foreign policy would be absolute folly, I'm certain he's what we need domestically. It would put us in a better position to deal with those external problems.
I would love to see him as Sec of the Treasury.

[AdamMNChange]

06:57 PM on 01/26/2012

I put it to you that his foreign policy is a departure from the 'folly' that has been American Foreign policy for the better part of the last 100 years. A war with Iran brings China & Russia into the fold. You do not want a shooting war with either much less both.

[billw8017]

01:44 AM on 01/25/2012

Actually, the Clinton years were anomalous in being the one time since the election of Nixon in 1968 that the incomes of ordinary people increased in real terms. Johnson kicked off the era of annual federal deficits when he tried to conduct the Vietnam war (as Bush did with Afghanistan and Iraq) without raising taxes. Successive Republican Presidents had each his time to set peacetime deficit records.

That we have to pay it back is not so clear. Under Johnson, a cuppa coffee cost 10c. That is, we are shrinking the deficit by reducing the value of the dollar that it is denominated in, a kind of debt retiring tax by inflation. The Federal Reserve is a kind of banker's club and designed to limit political intervention.

[ssnt]

05:31 PM on 01/25/2012

Um, ever hear of the tech bubble. What happened when it burst?

[AdamMNChange]

06:59 PM on 01/26/2012

Under Clinton, not only was Glass Steagel Repealed by Larry Summers, but the means by which they factor CPI among other indices such as unemployment were completely revised. This has a direct impact on how we calculate wage/salary increases. Check out John William's ShadowStats.com for reality based statistics. I agree with your second paragraph though.

[woody7]

02:58 PM on 01/24/2012

Dam n $ocialist......................................................................

[M Grey]

07:55 PM on 01/24/2012

Crony capitalist.
There is a total disconnect between the Dow and the economy.
The Dow increasing by 50% in the same time that houses are still losing money despite all the money he gave to the banks.

[billw8017]

01:49 AM on 01/25/2012

The DOW reflects big company profits which necessarily has somewhat to do with the economy -- just not completely the US economy since these "job creators" have been laying off American workers and sending work abroad. TARP was a Bush administration initiative and you might more fairly say, "the money they gave to the banks."

[billw8017]

02:12 PM on 01/25/2012

If you doubt that the people who play the stock markets have the money to do so, I cannot imagine the argument that will convince you otherwise.

[valuelines]

09:42 AM on 01/25/2012

Please...look up the meaning of the word before hitting the keyboard.

[Nobody78]

02:37 PM on 01/24/2012

Yeah, but I thought Obama was killing business!! So Fox News lied to me?

[AdamMNChange]

05:57 PM on 01/24/2012

Ever heard of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets (aka Plunge Protection Team)? It was instituted under Reagan in conjunction with the Treasury Dpt. & Federal Reserve after the 1987 panic to prop up the stock market during periods of crisis to create the illusion of health so as to discourage a panicked public from hoarding their savings as opposed to "investing". They claim this isn't true though it's well documented as it would hurt Reagan's image as a capitalist icon. Capitalism means you're free to succeed or fail. In the era of bailouts this has not been the case as "too big to fail" banks and companies embrace socialized losses. Essentially, the Plunge Protection Team DIRECTLY intervenes in the market place with the Federal Reserve providing the necessary counterfeit to do so. This is NOT free market capitalism which explains why capitalism has gotten a bad wrap lately by Occupy & others. Truth is, we live in an era of Corporate Socialism, enabled by the private Federal Reserves "authority" to counterfeit money. Explains why it is no matter who gets "elected" the agenda remains unchanged. Also explains why the media calls Ron Paul crazy and racist. They don't want anyone exposing the Federal Reserve for what it is; a mechanism for the confiscation of the common people's wealth via inflation. That's all it is.

[gwbsucs1]

11:48 AM on 01/25/2012

it's well documented as it would hurt Reagan's image as a capitalist icon-----------------to those smart enough to remember Reagan as he was - his image was tainted a long time ago

[gwbsucs1]

11:52 AM on 01/25/2012

explains why the media calls Ron Paul crazy and racist.--------------------------the problem here is that it isn't "the media" that calls Ron Paul crazy and rascist - its the people who are payin attention to the debates - although i agree with some of Pauls views - most are far fetched - he would have been better off pickin the fights he knew he could win , and left the rest out - his visions of what America "should" be like , mimic someone who has "clouded" visions , like they suffer from cataracs

[AdamMNChange]

05:57 PM on 01/24/2012

...Need money for housing? We don't have that, there's no benefit in it for US! Unless of course we can lower interest rates enticing people into the housing market who will default once we raise the interest rates on that option arm, bundle it into a security, sell it to wealthy foreigners and secretly bet against it via Credit Default Swap! Need money for war? We've got plenty for that! It allows our multinational corporations to confiscate the natural resources of indigenous populations! We'll create trillions for that!, loan it to your nation's people at interest, further enslaving the tax payer for loans taken out against their will but in their name! Can't pay down that debt? No problem! We'll just need your people to sacrifice sovereignty to this same banking cartel! Thanks Europe!

[independentvoter007]

01:31 PM on 01/24/2012

Obama joins an exclusive club. The 1%. He's been in it for a while

[M Grey]

07:55 PM on 01/24/2012

f&f

[billw8017]

01:54 AM on 01/25/2012

It is amazing how the son of a single (divorced) mother can earn a scholarship to a very prestigious school, build a personal fortune and be elected leader of the free world. The only way you could top that is if he should win the Nobel Prize.

[independentvoter007]

02:41 AM on 01/25/2012

The only way that could happen is through capitalism

[ssnt]

05:35 PM on 01/25/2012

Gotta love the USA, and our capitalistic society!!

[Washington76 76]

01:16 PM on 01/24/2012

Gold for Oil: India and Iran Ditch Dollar – Report FOREX NEWS | YOHAY | CREATED: JAN 23, 2012