NEWS AND OPINION:
Though the economy appears to be humming and happy, analysts and journalists who care little for President Trump are issuing brisk warnings about the dangers of the roaring stock market. It will fail, go bust, collapse. America will not be great. All will be lost. Such dire predictions been surfacing quite a while, such as this CNBC headline: “The booming stock market is in denial. ” It appeared over seven months ago. Then there was CNN’s take: “Trump is playing with fire by obsessing over the stock market.” That was six months ago.
But wait a minute. Investor’s Business Daily analysts Lewis K. Uhler and Peter J. Ferrara explain all.
“Just a few weeks after major tax reform legislation was approved by Congress and signed by President Trump, we are seeing the broad benefits of economic growth for the middle class, blue-collar workers and the poor. That is captured in summary fashion in the stock market. The Dow has climbed to a new all-time record, over 26,000 in the past few days. That reflects $7.2 trillion in new wealth added to the economy over the first year of the Trump presidency, broadly shared by everyone with stock ownership, either directly, or through pension plans and retirement savings. Turns out Donald Trump really is crazy, like a fox,” the pair writes.
“But there is a broader significance: the stock market reflects people betting their own money on the future of the economy. They are betting on increased economic growth, higher sales, higher business profits and income, increased jobs, and higher real wages. When people bet their own money, that means their hopes are well founded. Economic growth will soar past the average of less than 2 percent under the long Obama stagnation, beyond 4 percent, to 5-6 percent for a couple of years. That is because the steeper the recession, the stronger the recovery: The economy grows faster than the normal 4 percent of prosperous times for a couple of years, until it reaches where it would have been on the long term economic growth trend line before the recession,” note the two analysts.
“Those buried in the fake news media don’t know it, but the economy never actually recovered from the steep 2008-09 recession. There never was that post-recession, above average, economic boomlet, to recover the economy’s former GDP growth line, after the recession officially ended in summer 2009. America was nearly $3 trillion behind where it should have been in GDP when Trump entered office last January.”
THE BUSY MR. OBAMA
It is not the rumored anti-Trump “shadow government” that is to be feared at the moment, perhaps. It is a busy former president as the midterm elections roar onto the horizon.
“Since leaving office, Barack Obama has struggled with how to do what no modern president has: take on his successor. Over the past year, he’s appeared at rallies, done a robocall, made a few endorsements. His office in Washington’s West End neighborhood, about a mile from the White House, has become a destination for Democrats looking to tap the former president for advice. But with the midterms approaching, people close to him say he’ll shift into higher gear,” writes Edward-Isaac Dovere, chief Washington correspondent for Politico.
“Throughout, Obama is determined not to become the foil that he can see President Donald Trump clearly wants, and resist being the face of the Resistance for his own party,” he writes.
“There is no model. Never before has a former president been as diametrically opposed to his successor as right now, and never before has a former president left office with his party immediately so eager to see him out on the trail,” Mr. Dovere later adds.
THE OUTSPOKEN MR. FLAKE
One veteran analyst and significant politician has a single observation about outgoing Sen. Jeff Flake, who recently compared President Trump to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. Among other things, the Arizona Republican has disagreed with the president’s criticism of liberally biased news organizations.
“Sen. Flake probably could get a job at CNN or somewhere else as a reporter,” Newt Gingrich tells Fox News.
ULTIMATE FAKE NEWS
Ever creative, ever canny President Trump has handed out his top picks for “fake news,” as produced by the nation’s leaning news organizations. CNN was the big winner. Now he wants input from Americans themselves.
“We’re going to keep calling the fake news media out for their liberal bias and lies. And we will never let their attacks stop us from our mission to make America great again! Who would you crown the ultimate King of Fake News of 2017?” the enthusiastic Mr. Trump says in a new public poll.
The choices for the dubious award are ABC News, The Associated Press, BuzzFeed, CBS, CNN, Fox News, The Huffington Post, MSNBC, NBC News, Newsweek, The New York Times, National Public Radio, Time, The Washington Post — or anyone the respondent might like to nominate in the poll, offered through the Trump Make America Great Again Committee.
FOXIFIED
Those with nostalgia or curiosity for the days of yore are in luck. Fox News Channel now is offering “Scandalous” — a seven-part series that provides a historic overview of, well, scandals. Episode one is a doozy, offering a “riveting, up-close look at the Clinton scandals of the 1990s,” the network says.
The documentary tracks events in the nation’s capital and beyond which led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. Among the 45 insiders interviewed: former independent counsels Kenneth Starr, Robert Fiske Jr. and Robert Ray plus Linda Tripp, who secretly recorded conversations with then-White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The production includes archival footage and records. The new series debuts Sunday at 8 p.m. ET. — with much more to come.
WEEKEND REAL ESTATE
For sale: Sims House, built in 1865 on one acre in Delphi, Indiana, for Civil War-era Union officer and attorney Joseph A. Sims. “Stately four-bedroom Italianate” with two baths, original woodworking, poplar flooring, walnut cabinetry, built-ins, staircases; 4,100 square feet. Ten-foot ceilings, 9-foot-tall windows; property includes roomy attic, a spacious three-room basement and 1960-era fallout shelter. Patio, screened deck, detached garage, mature trees and flower beds.
Priced at $299,900 through IndianaLandmarks.org; find the historic home here.
POLL DU JOUR
• 69 percent of Americans say “owners” of news outlets who influence reporting is a major problem in news coverage.
• 66 percent cite drama and sensationalism as a major problem.
• 65 percent cite bias in reporting; 64 percent cite bias in ommission of certain stories not covered.
• 61 percent cite lack of neutral reporting; 59 percent cite lack of investigative reporting.
• 57 percent cite inaccurate reporting; 51 percent can’t name a single “objective” news organization.
Source: A Gallup/Knight Foundation poll of 19,196 U.S. adults conducted Aug. 4-Oct. 2 and released Wednesday.
• Follow Jennifer Harper on Twitter @HarperBulletin
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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