Friday, June 30, 2006

bush's economy?

I have been seeing some chatter about how "bush is turning the economy around" (meaning somehow making it better.) How absurd. He DID turn it around once - the day he took office it went from good to bad, and is continuing on that course.

This is not to say it is bad for everyone. His glorious tax break - what was that about? Capital Gains? I don't guess I have any. I never saw any change. But I'm sure his Friends do! Do you? If not, better get some, 'cause there's a break in there somewhere.


But back to the economy. In January 1992, the Dow was at 3,220, approximately. By the end of 1999 it was at 11,497! Over 257% rise!

Ok, now from that 11,497 (start of 2000), until 29 June 2006, it has "reached" 11,190. This is a decline of 2.7%. And yes, it has come up a bit recently. If you examine the historical figures, the tanking was a lot worse! Granted, there was that dot.com tank, and recovery, but overall bush has no interest (nor knowledge?) in fixing things, in getting the economy back in a growth posture. Straight-line flat for his whole tenure.

I have included some graphs of somewhat recent times for both the Dow and the S&P 500 so you can kinda get a feel of the abrupt change in direction "we" have made. I don't have the figures yet for the top 1%, or even the top 10%, of our income brackets, but I bet their situation isn't quite so dire. I will try to come up with those figures to show later. But for now...

You think that's what the chatter is about? Not you and me, but them?

posted by DadEO @ 6:30 PM