I guess I will start my response with three famous quotes, all of which are true:
1, Robert Gates- Joe Biden has been wrong on every major foreign policy issue during his career.
2. Barry Obama- Never underestimate the ability of Joe Biden to **** things up!
3. Stretch- The president always gets more credit than he deserves when the economy is going well, and he gets more blame than he deserves when the economy is going bad.
That said, there can be no argument that the policies. procedures, executive orders, and administrative bureaucracy's can greatly influence the "economy". Both from a macro perspective as well as individual perspective. So let's look at some of those things. Start with the stock market, specifically the most commonly used Dow Jones Industrials Average. Figures are slightly rounded off, so don't argue about being off by a day or two or 40-50 points.
1/15/2017- 19,700 (Trump takes office)
1/15/2020- 28,500 (3 year mark, just before Covid hit)
3/25/2020- 21,200 (depth of the Covid scare)
1/15/2021- 30,800 (Trump leaves office, Biden takes office)
11/1/2021- 36,300 (Peaks)
10/15/2022- 29,200
1/15/2023- 37,500 (3 year mark to match Trump)
Note that after 3 years under Trump the market went up 56%, after 3 years under Biden the market went up 22%. Can you tell us which one was better?
Unemployment:
Jan 2017- 4.7%
Feb 2020- 3.5% (prior to Covid)
Apr 2020- 14.8% (Peak from Covid)
Jan 2021- 6.4% (Trump leaves office, Joe takes the reins)
Jun 2022- 4.0%
Feb 2024- now running 3.7%, had a low of 3.5%
January 2020 with Trump- Blacks 6.3%, Hispanic 4.3%, White 3.2%, Men 3.5%, women 3.4%
January 2023 with Biden- Blacks 5.3%, Hispanic 5.0%, White 3.4%, Men 3.9%, Women 3.4%
Not much difference there, nothing to really brag about.
Bringing back industries:
Well, I remember Trump doing some things in that area, but not specifics. Think some of it was tied to tax breaks that rewarded bringing back overseas operations. Don't know how much Joe tried to do, but would bet in involved actually giving away taxpayer's money rather than just giving tax credits.
Yes, Joe Biden has been shoveling money and arms and defensive systems to the Ukrainians. It's too bad for us and them that he has been late every step of the way. If we were to be committed to helping them out, it should have started as Putin was moving his assets to the border so they could more easily be repelled, rather than trying to eradicate them after they took over big chunks of the country and spread out all over the place. Joe Biden- wrong again on a major foreign policy issue. BTW, does Ukraine have a very poor reputation for corruption or are they very honest? And is that the country that gave his family millions of dollars? Might that have influenced his decision making?
Inflation:
Under Trump there were 4 months that ran 2.7-2.9, one month that was 2.5, all other months were under that, mostly 1.x annual %.
Biden takes over and it jumps to 2.6% in March 2021, 4.2% in April, and 9.1% in June! Highest rate in over 40 years. He got it down to 3.1 last October, and it was 4.1 in Jan or Feb this year. Biden's policies and spending like a drunken sailor lead directly to the huge jump in inflation, and he and his team were warned by many, many folks that the inflation was bound to happen as a result of all that spending. But they had to go ahead and dole out the money by the billions in their quest to buy votes and voters. That has hurt many millions of Americans, and the ones it hurts the most are the lower income families, the ones that the libs always claim to care so deeply about. (BTW, the lower income quintile under Trump was the quintile that made the biggest gains in REAL income, now they are getting steamrolled under Biden.)
So you want to brag about inflation rate coming down from 9% to 3%, huh. Well, I am going to tell you that that is a stupid thing to do. As I am sure you know, compound interest is a good thing, and financial advisors always tell you to take advantage of it. It makes your money grow faster- Hooray! Well, the the thing that Biden and all his ass kissers like Karin Grey Poopon and apparently you like to ignore, is that there is an inverse to compound interest, and it is compound inflation. In other words, it adds up! It makes little difference that it is now 3-4%, it has been adding up now for three years and those prices will not be coming down for the vast majority of retail items. Yes, they claim that core inflation is "only" about 17%, but when you include the things like housing, fuel, food, utilities that the core CPI excludes, the typical family is struggling to afford things now. They are forced to lower their standard of living because their paychecks have not kept up with real life inflation. More people are being forced to get a second job, to "unretire" to live their daily lives. There are two dangerous warning signs for our economy that don't get play by the administration or the MSM that acts as the propaganda arm of the Democrat party- that is the drop in savings as families raid them to afford daily living, and they also are running up consumer credit debt at an alarming rate. So while a GDP number or unemployment number might look okay on the macro level, there are very disturbing trends that affect the working people of the country.
And BTW, I don't think that inflation index is going to get much better for quite a while as we pay for college debt, health care and schooling and housing and food and, and, and for all of the 10,000,000 illegal aliens that have crossed our border in the past three years.
There is more but it will have to wait as my back is aching and I am tired.
Have a good night, all. Go Cougs!
EDIT to add my sports analogy: When the Cowboys and Redskins play and Dallas is ahead 42-3 after 3 quarters and the Redskins then get a TD and "win" the 4th quarter 7-0, you do NOT applaud the teams effort in the last quarter and crow about how they are on the right direction. But that is exactly what Joe and Ed when they what a good thing it is that inflation has come down from 9% to 3%. They still effed everything up for the first 3 quarters and game as a whole was a disaster. Same as the inflation issue.
Good night......
