If you have any money in the stock market, today was a good day to not look at it. The Dow Jones cratered by nearly 900 points with the other markets following the same trends. For the first time, the markets are now currently lower under Joe Biden than when he took office.
This is what a full-scale collapse looks like.
As you would expect, the White House, which has often bragged about its supposed economic results, is being pressed for an explanation of how this happened and where things go from here. Answers are few and far between, but the buck-passing that Biden normally participates in is being challenged by a resurrected clip of the president taking credit for the stock market earlier in the year.
Like with gas prices, Biden doesn’t get to talk about how great he is when the stock market is up and then disown his responsibility when things crash, and to be sure, what we are witnessing is a crash the likes of which we haven’t seen since the Great Recession. Retirements are being destroyed while those who invested in the market more short-term have lost their shirts.
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But unlike in past times of economic turbulence, there is nowhere to hide. The combination of rising interest rates, sky-high inflation, and cratering investments means whether you put your money in stocks, real estate, or the bank, you are losing money right now. At least during the Great Recession, inflation stopped short of four percent, meaning those who saved, invested low, and played it smart were rewarded down the line. Currently, everything is on fire, and there’s no escape from Biden’s economy. Worse, there’s no hope in sight of a turnaround.
When asked about the chaos on Monday, Biden’s press secretary, Karine-Jean Pierre, flailed wildly, essentially suggesting that the economy is so amazing that people can handle a little hardship.
Do you feel well-positioned? Because I don’t feel well-positioned as I continue to watch my investments go up in smoke while my savings dwindle under the weight of inflation. This kind of gaslighting is astonishing to witness. Jen Psaki had no shame, and Jean-Pierre is just as shameless but without any of the same rhetorical skill.
Want another example? Get a load of this answer.
She’s quite literally reading that answer out of her briefing book. This is a woman so ill-prepared and so unknowledgeable that she can’t even give a basic retort without reading it verbatim. Shouldn’t the ability to speak publicly be a qualification to be a press secretary?
But it’s her substance (or lack thereof) that is most striking. She goes on to suggest that the economy is booming, plugging the American Rescue Plan and noting that Republicans didn’t vote for it. Well, yeah, I’m pretty sure all Republicans are happy to say they didn’t vote for the chief cause of the nation’s out-of-control inflation.
In short, the White House’s economic strategy is idiotic, but its messaging is just as bad. These are people way in over their heads, from Biden down to Jean-Pierre.