Article: But the question naturally follows: Why are expectations for strong stock performance higher when Democrats ascend to the Oval Office? One plausible reason is that their Republican predecessors often leave behind a screwed-up economy with stock prices already depressed.
Presidents don't have total control over an economy. There are lots of influences — new technology, energy prices, demographic changes — that can boost or drag economic performance.
But history suggests that economic governance goes south when a Republican president has a Republican Congress backing his bad ideas. Start with 1930, when Republican Herbert Hoover made a troubled economy worse by launching a trade war. Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt had to pick up the pieces.
Another example is 2008, a time of near financial collapse. George W. Bush's administration had encouraged speculation in house prices, let Wall Street run wild and supercharged deficits thanks to large tax cuts and little control on spending. (Bill Clinton had left him a booming economy with budget surpluses.) Barack Obama inherited Bush's mess.
It would be unfair to compare investment performance early in Obama's presidency, when stocks had nowhere to go but up, to that of Trump. So let's compare the first 33 months of Trump with the last 33 months of Obama.
Under Trump, so far, the S&P 500 has risen just over 33%. During Obama's last 33 months, it jumped almost 48%.
Republicans argue that a Republican-controlled Congress curbed President Clinton's ability to spend. There may be some truth to that. But George W. Bush had Republican majorities in both houses of Congress — for half his presidency — when all fiscal discipline flew out the window.
The same can be said for the first two years of Trump's presidency. We're now running annual deficits of around $1 trillion a year. And Trump's trade war adds further drag.
The economy may not currently be "in deep trouble," but what can you say to those who still believe in Trump's magical powers to make everyone rich? You're on your own.
https://www.tribstar.com/opinion/columns/froma-harrop-democrats-preside-over-stronger-economies/article_e99c0a3e-00c2-11ea-9d75-17eb5ca27efa.html?fbclid=IwAR3hIcL00-ylbi_5b0qmSKUvmdwfQzqnUtegj3Ww8F3z9jhwLIjr7Zhw8Tk
