In his 11 November 2009 NY Times blog post, The Agony of Fox Business, Paul Krugman writes
Clearly, the Fox Business crew is having a very hard time. They bill themselves as being truly pro-business — not like those leftists at CNBC. But they aren’t really pro-business; they’re pro-Republican. They’d like you to believe that it’s the same thing; but there’s this awkward fact that markets have, you know, gone up under Obama.
And this isn’t just a phenomenon of the last few months. Look back at stock returns under recent presidents, which is easy using a clever gadget at Political Calculations. Taking real, dividend-inclusive annual returns on the S&P 500, I get:
Reagan: 10.08%
Bush I: 10.16%
Clinton: 14.35%
Bush II: minus 5.81%Tax-hiking Democrats are supposed to be terrible for business; I mean, Norman Podhoretz whines that Jews should be conservatives because Republican policies are better for the economy. But the data just refuse to say that — and that’s even if we restrict ourselves to the stock market, never mind job creation, wages, poverty and all that.
So the whole idea of Fox Business is problematic. It’s Fox, which means that it’s basically an arm of the GOP; but that’s a terrible match for business coverage, because the economy just refuses to punish liberals and reward conservatives the way it’s supposed to.
Looking back further, the “S&P proof” is not ironclad but it sure tends to support Krugman’s contention:
Annualized Rates of Return with Dividend Reinvestment and Adjusted for Inflation
Eisenhower (1/53-1/61) 13.85%
Kennedy (1/61-11/63) 9.29%
Johnson (11/63-1/69) 7.10%
[Kennedy & Johnson together (1/61-1/69) 7.87%]
Nixon (1/69-8/74) MINUS 7.74%
Ford (8/74-1/77) 11.63%
[Nixon & Ford together (1/69-1/77) MINUS 2.40%
Carter (1/77-1/81) 1.25%
Reagan (1/81-1/89) 10.08%
Bush I (1/89-1/93) 10.16%
Clinton (1/93-1/2001) 14.35%
Bush II (1/2001-1/2009) MINUS 5.81%
Obama (1/2009-9/2009) 31.91% (and that’s just thru Sept!)
Looking over the longer periods, by the S&P 500 measure:
The laggards are: Nixon and Dubya.
The big winners are Clinton and Ike.
And the biggest winner so far is … you know who.
Hey, Barack. You’re looking good!
The numbers are not relevant to Fool’s Business News.
The type of businesses that Fool’s Business News is probably focused on is the type that gets a thrill out of taking huge risks for huge temporary profits. The thrill of the crash is part of the adrenalin rush.
For those of us who like to eat real food instead of just popping uppers and downers, the thrill ride is something we can do without.