‘if this is socialism, call me comrade’

Ritholtz.com: No politics or partisanship here, “just the facts ma’am”.  The stock market, as measured by the S&P500 (a capitalization-weighted index, published since 1957, of the prices of 500 large common stocks actively traded in the United States) is up just about 50 percent since President Obama’s inauguration …. only Eisenhower comes close, but not even in the same zip code. A 50 percent stock move does a lot “spreading the wealth around” and Joe the Plumber’s pension is in much better shape today than it was in November 2008.

Washington Monthly: For about the first two months after President Obama was inaugurated …. Wall Street indexes were dropping sharply … conservatives said the declines were evidence that the White House’s economic policies were a mess, if not an outright failure, and that the president didn’t know what he was doing.

…..The drop in the Dow, the Wall Street Journal insisted, was a direct result of investors evaluating “Mr Obama’s agenda and his approach to governance”. Karl Rove and Lou Dobbs made the same case. So did Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, John Boehner, Mitt Romney…..

That was nearly two years ago, and wouldn’t you know it, they’re not saying that anymore.

….a chart like this one (see above) comes with all kinds of caveats … the value of a stock market index is hardly the best metric for measuring the strength of the economy …. and it’s easier to generate major gains like these when one starts from a very low point – and after eight years of disastrous Republican policies, Bush bequeathed an economy in shambles.

That said, there are some relevant angles to results like these, too. For example, it’s hard not to notice that the right seems awfully selective about when Wall Street indexes count – when the markets are down, Obama deserves the blame; when the markets are up; Obama doesn’t deserve the credit. It’s funny how that works. It’s also tough for unhinged conservatives to continue to insist that the White House is comprised of radical socialists, intent on destroying private enterprise, when major indexes have soared under Obama’s watch.

Full article here