The S&P 500 is now officially down for the year, ending today about 2 percent under its value at the beginning of January:
How big a deal is this? I don’t know, though I’m a little surprised that investors couldn’t stay excited about a big corporate tax cut for more than a few months. However, President Trump is pretty sure he knows what’s going on. As usual, it’s a personal attack, this time from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell:
“Every time we do something great, he raises the interest rates,” Mr. Trump said, adding that Mr. Powell “almost looks like he’s happy raising interest rates.”
….The president’s caustic comments about Mr. Powell came as Mr. Trump repeatedly described the economy in personal terms. He referred to economic gains during his time in office as “my numbers,” saying, “I have a hot economy going.” He described his push for growth as a competition with former President Obama’s record, saying that increases under his Democratic predecessor were skewed because of low-interest rates.
Poor Donald. Everyone has it out for him, even the conservative Republican millionaires that he’s personally appointed.
POSTSCRIPT: It’s odd that Trump’s normally excellent attack-dog instincts have failed him on this topic. The self-evident explanation for the stock market decline is that fake news has been excitedly reporting a “blue wave” for the upcoming election, which makes investors nervous that Democrats will take over and ruin the economy. I’m not sure how Trump has missed something so obvious.
UPDATE: Now we’re talking:
Stocks are falling due to fear that Democrats will win midterms and end “pro-growth policies,” according to White House advisor Larry Kudlow. https://t.co/3F5M2boykL
— CNBC (@CNBC) October 23, 2018
