With its 608-point pratfall today, the Dow Jones has now plunged below its January 2 close, meaning the index is actually down for the year.
For some reason, I kind of doubt Donald Trump will tweet anything about this.
From CNBC:
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 608.01 points at 24,583.42 and erased all of its gains for 2018. The S&P 500 dropped 3.1 percent to 2,656.10 and also turned negative for the year. The Nasdaq Composite fell 4.4 percent to 7,108.40— entering correction territory — as Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet all traded lower.
Whoops.
While many factors have likely contributed to the swoon, Trump’s unnecessary trade war has to be top of mind for investors. In addition to introducing an unneeded fiscal stimulus by way of a pro-plutocrat tax cut a year ago — which likely forced the Fed to raise interest rates faster than it otherwise might have — Trump created uncertainty in the global economy (i.e., fucked it up for no good reason) by imposing tariffs on our allies and trading partners.
So let’s count how many DJT tweets we see about the stock market if it heads further south.
By the way, for those keeping score, the percentage increase in the Dow under Trump since his inauguration has been 24.2 percent. Under Obama over the same period it was 37.8 percent. Combine that with the fact that job creation has actually slowed under Trump compared to the most recent growth under Obama, and you have a lot of ammo in your bandolier for the next idiot who comes up to you and says Trump has saved the economy. (If you’re lucky, that idiot might actually be Trump himself, but that’s unlikely because he uses morons as human shields these days.)
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