President Donald Trump suggested that a recent swoon in U.S. stock markets is a buying opportunity for investors, even though many analysts blame his policies and Washington gridlock for the plunge.
“We have companies – the greatest in the world, and they’re doing really well,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. “They have record kinds of numbers. So I think it’s a tremendous opportunity to buy. Really a great opportunity to buy.”
U.S. equities extended a weeks-long slide into Christmas Eve, dragging the benchmark S&P 500 index to its lowest level in 20 months. The president has looked to the stock market as a barometer on his administration, and the declines have infuriated him.
He has discussed firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell over the central bank’s interest rate increases, which Trump and his allies blame for the market plunge, though he concluded over the weekend it wasn’t within his power, according to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The latest run of selling has come amid White House turmoil led by Trump and a gridlocked U.S. government.
Mnuchin recommended Powell’s nomination, raising speculation that Trump could turn his wrath to the Treasury secretary, whom he can more easily dismiss. But Trump said Tuesday he retains confidence in Mnuchin and called him “very talented.”
Every politician plays to their base though. Remember, Hillary called Trump supporters deplorables. She was playing to her base and alienating Trump’s. The issue is that type of rhetoric alienates a lot of moderates. Trump’s rhetoric will hurt him if democrats nominate a moderate. I see a 0% chance of that though. They’ll respond by going very far left which will actually play right into his hands.
Let’s put that in context. She called some of them -
"The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic – you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people – now 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive hateful mean-spirited rhetoric. Now, "
The election was between 2 candidates. Complaining about one person when both exhibit the same behavior isn’t rational. The behavior isn’t a differentiating factor between candidates. If people are going to complain, they should focus on what would actually be different.
… except I am not talking about 2016 and the election. No point in revisiting the election when its almost 2019. I am talking about our current president and how he does not understand that it is a president’s duty to represent all Americans, not just a narrow slice of the electorate.
Presidential polarization has dramatically increased in the last 26 years. 55, 61,70,77. The jump from Bush to Obama is the highest. Second highest is from Obama to Trump. There are fundamental reasons for this.
‘The report cites “extreme party polarization” as a possible driver keeping Trump’s approval ratings in a narrow band, regardless of national conditions and events. Trump’s average approval ratings are 85 percent among Republicans and 8 percent among Democrats — that 77-point gap is larger than similar gaps for Obama (70 points), George W. Bush (61 points) and Bill Clinton (55 points).’
‘As for the 2020 election cycle, Jones, the senior editor who wrote the report on Trump’s approval rating, told POLITICO that he doesn’t expect Gallup to return to the horse-race polls it has historically conducted. Still, despite the company’s shift, he does think Gallup will contribute some public opinion research, particularly on issues.’
Merry Christmas to all. Let’s step back from polarized politics a little bit.
Trump and Obama marked the new era in American politics: extreme party polarization.
“It is possible that Trump – and to a lesser extent his predecessor Barack Obama – have ushered in a new era of marked stability in job approval ratings resulting from extreme party polarization.”
I would lay the polarization at the feet of Fox news and Right-wing radio. There is no equivalent analog on the democratic side. The non-stop spin, blame allocation, mis-information that spews out from there drives the toxic conversation we have. There is a good reason that multiple studies have shown the average fox news audience is less informed then the general public
It’s Christmas. Stay merry and forget about polarized thought
Generally only low IQ people watch TV. I tried to watch some TV from different channels and every channel is silly, shallow, biased and repeating the same thing all day. Also most of the time is devoted to the opinionated talking heads, very little time on reporting facts, not to mention selective reporting of facts.
Generally most TV channels are worth less than two cents. Generally most of the media is worst than less than 3 cents.
I like to read news from different sources and check the background of its author and the publisher. Almost everyone is biased, including you and me. Truth is hard to be found, but most of the time, it’s in the middle when politics is involved.
