DOW when Bush took office: 10,659
DOW futures now – 11,550
NASDAQ when Bush took office : 2,841
NASDAQ futures now - 2,340
Unemployment when Bush took office - 4.0%
Unemployment now - 5.0%
U.S. Budget when Bush took office - $425 Billion Surplus
Budget now - $244 Billion deficit
National Debt when Bush took office - $5.5 Trillion,
(being paid off by $350 Billion/year)
National Debt now - $9.187 Trillion -
The transfer of wealth from the middle and working classes to the ruling monied classes in the form of the much ballyhooed Republican "tax cuts" propaganda of the last 7 years has proven the disaster that is supply side economics.
Reaganomics is a joke, so Democrats and Republicans should STFU about tax cuts by looking at the historical and current economic data.
Asian stocks fell today, extending a global rout that has wiped more than $5 trillion from stock markets so far this year.
It's been a bloodbath.
Close Drop % drop
The Nikkei (Japan) 12,573.05 - 752.89 -5.65%
HANG SENG INDEX (Hong Kong) 21,723.26 - 2,095.60 - 8.80%
S&P/ASX 200 INDEX (Australia) 5,186.80 - 393.60 - 7.05%
BSE SENSEX 30 INDEX (India) 16,072.60 - 1,532.75 - 8.71%
Japanese benchmarks plunged, completing the worst two-day drop in 17 years on concern global growth is faltering. The Nikkei dropped 9.3 percent in the last two sessions and the Topix fell 9.1 percent. That was the biggest two-day decline for both gauges since 1990 and erased 39.2 trillion yen ($369 billion) in value from the Tokyo Stock Exchange's main board.
The loss is more than twice the size of an economic stimulus plan suggested by U.S. President George Bush last week in the form of "tax rebates" to stimulate America's shopping economy for the middle classes.
Among 80 equity national equity benchmarks tracked by Bloomberg, indexes in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Namibia, the Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Venezuela and Vietnam also have dropped at least 20 percent from recent highs.
China holds the astonishing sum of more than $1.4 trillion in its reserves. The Chinese have invested most of their money in US Treasury Bills, a low-risk but also relatively low-return investment. In doing so, they have kept the dollar high and their own currency low, ensuring that their exports remain competitive.
While Asia finances America's excessive consumer spending, Americans buy Asia's cheap clothing, cars, furniture, food and TVs. Asia is America's Bank and Walmart. That is why Asia is being hurt by the current global Stock rout more than the Eurozone. They hold all the bad debt in America's housing bubble and consumer retail slide.
Note the Eurozone is not as heavily vested as Asia and shows considerably less risk to American retail and banking stocks.
January's decline in the S&P 500, the benchmark for American equities, marked the worst start in the index's history.
The Federal Reserve's three interest-rate cuts since September haven't encouraged stock investors about the prospects for the economy. Equities are the cheapest relative to bonds since 1974 since the disastrous Republican Ford administration.
When Republicans and Democrats learn that the majority of poor, working class and middle class common people are provided universal education, universal social security, universal voting rights, social safety nets, universal employment and universal healthcare... America always prospers through a renaissance of the common people.
When they rake the public sector, transfer wealth to the military industrialists and corporate monopolists, slash programs and ignore the plight of the common people through the means of propaganda and "tax cuts" and tax rebates; well... the charts, numbers and data do not lie.
To say nothing of perceptions and pessimistic consumers.
They too shall inherit the windfall of their greed.