Posts tagged Dow Jones Industrial Average

Congress, not Progress

11
4 days ago
by dcpetterson in

There are a num­ber of press­ing issues on America’s plate these days, and many that, while they may not be the topic of com­mon con­ver­sa­tion, are nev­er­the­less of immense and imme­di­ate con­cern to the health of our nation. Taxes. Jobs. Immi­gra­tion reform. Gun safety. Edu­ca­tion. Infra­struc­ture. The Sequester cuts. Vot­ing rights. DOMA. Energy and gaso­line prices. The debt limit. Just to name a few.

Is Con­gress address­ing these issues? Not really. The House has spent over 80 hours try­ing to repeal Oba­macare, and has held at least 37 votes to repeal. It’s uncer­tain why the House lead­er­ship — or even any of its junior mem­bers — believed the 37th vote would have a bet­ter chance of being taken up by the Sen­ate, or being signed by the Pres­i­dent, than the first dozen or so did.

But surely that waste of time is an excep­tion. With all the vital issues in the hop­per, surely Con­gress has spent the major­ity of its time deal­ing with them, no? (more…)

Taking Stock in Our Economy

37
2 months ago
by Michael Weiss in

The stock mar­ket closed yes­ter­day at another record high. But does that mean that our econ­omy is healthy? Cer­tainly it doesn’t feel as healthy as it did in, say, 2006. And it didn’t feel as healthy then as it did in, say, 1996. Or even as healthy as 1986. Yet the Dow Jones Indus­trial Aver­age was reach­ing new all-​​time highs each of those years.

Clearly, new stock mar­ket highs don’t equate to “the best econ­omy evah!” What, then, are we to make of these num­bers? Are they sound and fury, sig­ni­fy­ing noth­ing? Do they just tell us how rich the rich­est among us are get­ting? Or is there some­thing broader we can glean from stock prices, par­tic­u­larly when viewed in con­junc­tion with other eco­nomic indi­ca­tors?  (more…)

Democratic Convention: Day 2

265
8 months ago
by dcpetterson in

From a New York Times article:

Wednes­day night is attack night. Eliz­a­beth War­ren, who is try­ing to unseat Sen­a­tor Scott P. Brown of Mass­a­chu­setts, will offer up her par­tic­u­lar brand of Democratic-​​base appeal, while for­mer Pres­i­dent Bill Clin­ton will play the part of Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Paul Ryan, the Repub­li­can vice-​​presidential can­di­date who slammed Mr. Obama in Tampa, Fla., on Wednes­day night. Expect to hear a broad take­down of the Repub­li­can agenda.

Last week, we heard Repub­li­cans repeat­edly ask­ing the ques­tion Rea­gan posed in 1980: Are you bet­ter off today than you were four years ago? In prepa­ra­tion for tonight’s fes­tiv­i­ties, let’s take a look at where we were in Sep­tem­ber of 2008. (more…)

Reëlection Watch: June 16, 2012

20
11 months ago
by Michael Weiss in

It’s been a more active past two weeks than one might pre­vi­ously have thought. In elec­toral vote land, one state has moved in the past two weeks, but expect to see more move­ment in the future as the zone for tossups nar­rows with the increas­ing num­ber of polling data points and a decreas­ing amount of time for shifts.

So, how are things going for the Pres­i­dent lately? Let’s dive in. (more…)

Reëlection Watch: June 2, 2012

15
11 months ago
by Michael Weiss in

It’s been a more active past two weeks than one might pre­vi­ously have thought.

So, how are things going for the Pres­i­dent lately?

(more…)

Reëlection Watch: May 19, 2012

23
1 year ago
by Michael Weiss in

Today marks the sec­ond semi-​​monthly edi­tion of Reëlec­tion Watch. This time, I’m going to show another model on hand­i­cap­ping the race, using the Cook Par­ti­san Vot­ing Index (PVI).

So, how are things going for the Pres­i­dent lately?

(more…)

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