Bush and the Republican's excellent economic adventure

This is a simple diary. I'm no Bondad of Jerome a Paris so if you are looking for in depth economic analysis, you're in the wrong place.

I heard that Bush got some good news today on the economic front. The Dow topped 11,000. Yipee!!!

I know that conventional wisdom holds that Republicans are good for Wall Street. So I thought to myself, let's see how well it has done under Bush.

My first thought was "what the value was when Bush took office?" Well, his inauguration was on January 20th 2001 (a day that will live in infamy) and the stock market wasn't open on the 20th, but here is some data for the dates around that time:

finance.yahoo.com :

Date            Open           High            Low           Close            Volume           Adj Close*
25-Jan-01    10,644.53    10,882.42    10,520.90    10,729.52    1,258,000,000    10,729.52
24-Jan-01    10,651.85    10,795.80    10,483.49    10,646.97    1,308,999,936    10,646.97
23-Jan-01    10,575.80    10,773.94    10,459.91    10,649.81    1,232,600,064    10,649.81
22-Jan-01    10,581.90    10,749.44    10,371.66    10,578.24    1,164,000,000    10,578.24
19-Jan-01    10,686.00    10,792.14    10,448.93    10,587.59    1,407,800,064    10,587.59
18-Jan-01    10,584.57    10,834.43    10,466.01    10,678.28    1,444,999,936    10,678.28
17-Jan-01    10,660.95    10,817.35    10,442.83    10,584.34    1,349,100,032    10,584.34
16-Jan-01    10,525.78    10,751.48    10,362.72    10,652.66    1,205,699,968    10,652.66

So I guess things have improved about 500 points or so. Not so good, maybe if we look at the charts things will look better:

Here is the chart for the last five years:

Well, that's probably all Clinton's bubble and 9/11, so let's look at the last two years, I'm sure things will look better:

Oops, well at least there's no big dip for 9/11, but it looks like it is just treading water. I'm sure if we look at the last year we will see an improvement:

Oh darn things don't look like they have changed very much there either. I'm sure that if we look at the long term historical data we can put things into perspective:

Oh well, sigh, I tried to put a good spin on it. Maybe I can get a Nobel Prize in Economics for naming that last flat line the "Bush plateau".

•  The word you're looking for is...

  ...not simple, but elegant :) .

  by chingchongchinaman on Mon Jan 09, 2006 at 04:37:48 PM PDT

  •  Thank you

    by NYC Sophia on Mon Jan 09, 2006 at 04:51:24 PM PDT

•  Here's my favorite....

  09/28/2000 (close enough)
  $3,405,303,490,221.20 Debt Held by the Public
  $2,268,874,719,665.66 Intragovernmental Holdings
  $5,674,178,209,886.86 Total Debt

  01/06/2006
  $4,710,727,729,604.45 Debt Held by the Public
  $3,450,779,848,589.90 Intragovernmental Holdings
  $8,161,507,578,194.35 Total Debt

  Not bad in five years. I bet he can top $10 trillion before he leaves office.

  by 0hio on Mon Jan 09, 2006 at 04:50:11 PM PDT

  •  That's scarey.

    But at least if it were plotted then it would show an upward trend.

    by NYC Sophia on Mon Jan 09, 2006 at 04:53:33 PM PDT

•  Maybe next time I should show

  the charts for Halliburton to demonstrate how well the economy is doing with Bush as president.

  by NYC Sophia on Mon Jan 09, 2006 at 04:56:43 PM PDT

•  I think you should name the charts

  Especially the first two, as the Multiple W Troughs.  
  (Blur your vision a little and it might look as if poor Georgie were trying to sign his middle initial multiple times, just like we learn what use he has made of his "signing declarations.")

  It is so sad that this president has played so fast and loose with our futures. These were the years that personal retirement accounts were supposed to grow steadily, and we have barely crept back to where we were when ...
  

  by Compost On The Weeds on Mon Jan 09, 2006 at 06:22:35 PM PDT