Friday, January 22, 2010

Reality Check re: Stock Politics

Subject: txt mny -
The CliffsNotes version of the U.S. stock market over the past 45 years goes something like this:

As government interference in the economy grew between 1965 and 1982, the stock market remained stagnant, with the S&P 500 rising only 1.4% per year on average; then President Ronald Reagan cut the burden of government and the S&P 500 grew by an annualized 14.3% between August 1982 and August 1992...

The next two years were underwhelming as President Bill Clinton raised taxes and tried to nationalize health care (the S&P 500 increased only 3.7% annually between August 1992 and December 1994); a midcourse correction by the Clinton White House led to a five-year, 25% per year run on stocks; then the dot com crash...

The panic of 2008 and the big-government policies of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama created what many call the "lost decade": Despite a 60% rally since March 2009, the S&P 500 has lost about 2% per year over the past decade.

The moral? None of this is about politics, per se, but rather is about policy. Capitalism works, big government doesn't.



READ MORE

No comments: