Nobody seems to have written a diary about the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The DJIA follows 30 prominent companies listed on United States stock markets. Today it closed (barely) over 40,000. How significant is this? When Biden became president, the DJIA stood at 30,930, so over 3 ½ years the market has gone up almost 25%. So if your 401k or equivalent had $100,000 when Biden became POTUS, and you invested in the stock market, your 401k would be around $125,000 now. And that does not include any money you continued to invest in your 401k.
Inflation is down, the annual inflation rate in the US fell for a third straight month to 3% in June 2024, the lowest since June 2023, compared to 3.3% in May and below forecasts of 3.1%. I really believe that the reason people think the economy sucks is because of the interest rates. Mortgage rates at the moment are over 6.5%. If the Fed would start lowering rates, I think people would start realizing the economy is great.
The stock market is way up, unemployment is at 4.1%. Many sources say that “full employment” is when unemployment is between 3-5%.
I personally believe the economy is doing great (except for the inflation rate). Of course, I remember when I got my first mortgage the rate was over 10%. Look at this it shows 1970’s mortgage rates at 12.9%, 1980’s at 9.78%, 1990’s rate of 6.91% (about what it is today). It wasn’t until the 2000’s that the rates fell from 5% down to at times less that 3%. People have short term memories, everyone remembers the low mortgage rates, auto loan rates etc. Nobody remembers the high rates from the 70’s to the 2000’s.
Biden is doing a great job on the economy. He inherited a bungled Covid economy from Trump. Spread the word.
Note: I started writing this diary while watching MSNBC. I was surprised they actually mentioned the record DJIA that was hit today, and the economy under BIden.