If the stock market is your thing for measuring national performance and you think it’s going well, Raw Story has an article from two weeks ago that may put a damper on your celebratory steak:
A new report laid out in stark terms President Donald Trump’s toxic impact on the U.S. economy as the president boasts of a “golden age” and a country that is “hotter than ever.”
Bloomberg on Thursday wrote that the MSCI USA Index’s 16.3% surge screams champagne and caviar for investors looking to celebrate the new year — but beer and chips might be more realistic.
“Stacked up against the rest of the world, America’s stock market looks like an also ran: The MSCI USA’s advance pales next to the 29.2% surge in the MSCI All Country World Index excluding America,” the report noted. “To understand just how poor this performance was, consider that nothing of this magnitude has happened since 2009, when the global economy began to recover from the financial crisis. Stocks are no anomaly, US bonds and the dollar are relative losers as well.”
Here’s the definition of MSCI USA Index. And the ballpeen hammer treatment:
The report pinned the blame on Trump’s policy chaos, chiding that “America’s economic premium has vanished.”
It’s certainly enough to get the blood pressure up for the super-competitive – but do the rest of us care? Well, yes: this suggests the amateur hour management in the White House, what with tariffs and various other mismanagements.
Sounds like the Administration is run by laggards.
