The Economy, The Stock Market And The Election

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For the last two years President Donald Trump has taken credit for the very satisfactory performance of our economy and of the stock market. Indeed, the president appears to believe that the Dow Jones Average accurately measures our economic performance.

Although he apparently confuses one for the other, President Trump is due some measure of credit for our recent spurt of economic growth and for the rise of stock prices. The $1.5 trillion-dollar tax cut in December 2017 – which he ardently promoted – did provide a short-term boost to stock prices and to our rate of economic growth.

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Never one to ever be accused of false modesty, Trump frequently tweets to his millions of ardent followers about what a great job he’s doing running our economy and boosting stock prices. Indeed, he often proclaims that even though his name will not be on the ballot, the upcoming Congressional election is really just about him.

Regretfully, our relatively good economic performance has not been a major campaign issue, And until this last week, neither was our almost steadily rising stock prices.

But now the stock market’s may actually become a campaign issue, not just because of the substantial price declines on Wednesday and Friday, but also because of the continued volatility expected in the coming weeks. In short, this will be nothing to tweet about.

If the stock market tanks next week, the Republicans will pay dearly at the polls. So, who should be blamed for their losses?

Donald Trump has a long history of claiming credit whether or not that credit is due, and never accepting blame even for things that are clearly his fault. So, if the Republicans lose the election, you know who will be blamed. And if they do better than expected, well we all know whom to thank.

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