**** Elections thread *****

[BananaStand]

1945-1981 convinced me that it was a superior way to run an economy.

Huh? You know things got so bad by the end of that period that we were rationing gas.

I can say Obama though, my family's never been wealthier thanks to how he ran the economy.

So your mom bought low and sold high. Well played. I don't see how you can credit Obama for that though. The only reason the market was so low was because of a banking bubble that burst. Back in the 90's, democrats under Clinton decided that home ownership was a "right". And he implemented new regulations (or de-regulations, depending on how you look at it), that forced banks to make loans to people who were not creditworthy. In other words, Clinton forced the people at the top, to loan money to people at the bottom. Banks weren't allowed to discriminate based on someone's ability to pay, because that disproportionately affected poor people. And by poor people, we really mean black people. So the "racist" banks now had to be "inclusive" with their lending policies.

Poor people, who couldn't pay their bills, didn't do much better when you gave them more bills to pay. And the bubble burst.

Also, once Obama had the election sewn up (McCain was out of it long before November), investors saw tax hikes and government regulations on the horizon, and that triggered a sell off. It's no coincidence that the opposite happened when the market foresaw tax cuts and deregulation after a Trump win.

The problem with the market going up, is the lions share of stocks is owned by very wealthy people, so even when the market goes up, Main Street America sees little benefit from it.

False, the money still moves through the economy. You're right that securities increase faster than wages, and that disproportionally affects those who hold securities. Fine, if you don't like it, buy stock. But you're argument seems rooted in the premise that rich people just keep their money stuffed in a mattress doing nothing. Their money is out there, working, and fueling economic growth.