The last time this happened, voters didn’t credit Bill Clinton. That may be a bad omen, or a good one.

If the stock market chose presidents, Joe Biden would be a shoo-in for reelection in 2024. The market rallied this month amid growing optimism about the economy, with the S&P 500 zooming 1.9 percent Tuesday on news that the consumer price index rose only 3.2 percent in October (compared to 3.7 percent in September). Stocks rallied again Wednesday on news that the producer price index fell 0.5 percent. Commentators are no longer debating whether the economy will experience a “soft landing” (i.e., a reduction in inflation without recession). The only question now is when it will arrive. The S&P 500 seems to have decided it’s already here.

But the stock market doesn’t choose presidents. Voters do, and polls continue to show they think the economy is in terrible shape. A Financial Times–Michigan Ross Nationwide Survey conducted November 2–7 is absolutely brutal on this point.

  • @hark
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    308 months ago

    The “soft landing” narrative is settled? That’s news to me! There were a number of things that people could point at before 2008 about how peachy the economy was… until it suddenly wasn’t. I would be interested in hearing what specifically Biden did to create this “soft landing” but in general presidents don’t actually have that kind of control, and tying your name to the market makes you more susceptible to its fickle nature. The numbers were doing well for Trump, and he wouldn’t shut up about how he supposedly achieved it, until covid smacked it all down.

    • @HerrBeter
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      178 months ago

      Market is holding on for dear life, banks getting bailou- I mean emergency loans. Bond markets are shit, it’s all just show. China has been collapsing too ever since evergrande went bankrupt in like 2021.

      And it all started when they shot that damn gorilla… drags cigarette

    • @[email protected]
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      fedilink
      58 months ago

      He turned the economy dial to “better”. Now if only he turned his gas dial to “cheaper”./s