Tag Archives: Dow Jones Industrial Average

May 7, 2013 · 7:07 PM

On Day Stock Market Sets New Record, Conservative Group Floats Impeaching Obama For ‘Wrecking The Stock Market’

Credit:WND.com

I’ve often wondered just how weird the wacky Right-wing fringe groups have to get before their fellow Republicans (the semi-sane ones) say “Enough” ?

Think Progress

Today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 15,056, an all-time record. For one conservative group, this can only mean one thing: it’s time to impeach President Obama.

That was the message Capitol Hill Daily, a conservative publication based out of Baltimore, sent to Citizen United’s listserv today. They accused President Obama of “wreck[ing] the stock market” and asked readers to take a poll about whether he should be impeached as a result.

From the email:

Dear Concerned Reader,

Fearing the very worst, the nation’s super-rich are unloading their stocks at an alarming rate.

Even more troubling, the wealthiest 1% of Americans, who typically know the most, are the ones most anxious to sell.

You see, Obama just allowed 13 new tax increases to further slow the economy, wreck the stock market and make it even harder on the 12 million Americans already looking for work.

The bigger question is this…

Is Obama’s Latest Tax Screw Up Grounds For Impeachment?

See a screenshot below:

When Obama took office on January 20, 2009, the Dow Jones was at 7,949. Over the last 4 years, it has gone up approximately 90 percent before reaching a new high today.

It’s important to remember that the health of the stock market is very different from the health of the overall economy. Middle class wages are stagnating and millions are still unemployed or underemployed.

But when a conservative organization claims ignores reality in such a blatant way, one can’t help but quote former Rep. Barney Frank: “On what planet do you spend most of your time?”

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November 24, 2012 · 12:38 PM

10 things you need to know today: November 24, 2012

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi claimed sweeping new powers on Friday.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi claimed sweeping new powers on Friday. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

This daily feature from The Week is quite informative.  Even on a slow news day…

Egypt’s Mohamed Morsi is slammed for his power grab, U.S. stocks soar on Black Friday, and more in our roundup of the stories that are making news and driving opinion

1. EGYPTIAN JUDGES CONDEMN MORSI’S POWER GRAB
Top judges in Egypt have slammed President Mohamed Morsi for claiming sweeping new powers on Friday. Morsi’s decree gives the president near-absolute powers, and immunity from court appeals. The country’s senior judges, most of whom were appointed by ousted leader Hosni Mubarak, called Morsi’s power grab an “unprecedented assault” on the nation’s independent judiciary. Tens of thousands of Egyptians also took to the streets to protest Morsi’s decree. [The Guardian]

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2. ISRAEL EASES GAZA BORDER RESTRICTIONS
As part of Israel’s truce with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, restrictions are being eased along the tense border, allowing Palestinian farmers to access land near the border’s security fence, and letting Palestinian fisherman head further out to sea. The Egypt-brokered truce, which took effect Wednesday, ended an eight-day conflict that reportedly killed 166 Palestinians and six Israelis. [Associated Press]

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3. STOCKS SOAR ON BLACK FRIDAY
As millions of Americans braved long Black Friday lines to score steep discounts on a huge variety of consumer goods, investors showed their own “Black Friday cheer.” The Nasdaq and Dow Jones Industrial Average each rose 1.4 percent, and the S&P 500 climbed 1.3 percent, giving the latter index its biggest weekly gain since December 2011. Black Friday wasn’t the only reason for the rally, but it certainly helped. Consumer spending makes up some 70 percent of America’s economic activity, and the holiday shopping season accounts for 40 percent of many retailers’ annual revenue. [Associated Press]

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4. MASSACHUSETTS STRIP CLUB EXPLODES, INJURING 18
A natural gas explosion in Springfield, Mass., on Friday destroyed a strip club, damaged a daycare center, and blew out every window in a three-block radius. At least 18 people were injured. “This is a miracle… that no one was killed,” said the state’s lieutenant governor. [The Guardian]

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5. DALLAS‘ LARRY HAGMAN DIES AT 81
Larry Hagman, who played J.R. Ewing on Dallas, died Friday at 81 due to complications from his battle with cancer. On Dallas, Hagman turned “a business cheat, faithless husband, and bottomless well of corruption” into a “charmingly loathsome oil baron,” and is perhaps best remembered for the cliffhanger “Who shot J.R.?” episode. [Associated Press]

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6. BOXER HECTOR CAMACHO DIES AT 50
Hector “Macho” Camacho, the 50-year-old Puerto Rican boxer known for his “lightning-quick hands and flamboyant personality,” died on Saturday in Puerto Rico, after being shot earlier in the week while sitting in a parked car.  Ten bags of cocaine were reportedly found in the car. “As a teenager, Camacho was a brawler, a serial shoplifter, an admitted drug user, and a car thief, and he never put that part of his nature behind him.” [New York Times]

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7. WALMART WORKERS PROTEST ON BLACK FRIDAY
Black Friday wasn’t without its drama. Walmart workers demanding higher wages and better benefits staged protests at dozens of stores across the country on the annual day-after-Thanksgiving sale. Demonstrations were reported in Colorado, North Carolina, Texas, Minnesota, Florida, Kentucky, and several other states. [CBS News]

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8. NHL CANCELS ALL-STAR GAME
The hockey hiatus continues. On Friday, the lockout-stricken NHL canceled its annual All-Star game and two more weeks of games as owners and players were unable to strike a collective bargaining agreement. The NHL has now canceled the first nine weeks of games, through Dec. 14. The All-Star game, which was to have taken place in Columbus, Ohio, would have brought $12 million to the area, according to the Columbus Dispatch. [USA Today]

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9. THIEVES STEAL 18 TONS OF CHOCOLATE
Someone’s sweet tooth will be satisfied. Austrian police are on the hunt for thieves who stole a whopping 18 tons of chocolate bars. According to local media outlets, a driver loaded his truck with 33 pallets of milk chocolate in Bludenz, claiming that he was supposed to deliver the shipment to the Czech Republic. But authorities said the license plates and paperwork of the truck and driver turned out to be fake. [Associated Press]

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10. TOM CRUISE REUNITES WITH SURI
Tom Cruise and daughter Suri have reunited. After more than three months apart, the Mission Impossible scientologist and his little girl reunited for Thanksgiving in London. Cruise has seen little of his 6-year-old child since he and Katie Holmes filed for divorce in the summer. Holmes, meanwhile, spent Thanksgiving in her hometown of Toledo, Ohio. [People]

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August 6, 2011 · 12:11 AM

The Dow’s ‘scary’ collapse: 6 theories

The Week

Stocks took their sharpest drop in more than two years on Thursday. What caused the panic?

Financial markets sank around the world early Friday after U.S. stocks went into a “scary” nosedive on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling by 513 points. It was the biggest percentage drop — the Dow was down 4.3 percent, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 4.8 percent, and the Nasdaq 5.1 percent — since the dark days of the 2008 financial crisis. What caused the collapse? Here are six possible culprits:

1. Wall Street hates the debt deal
The plunge Thursday capped a 10-day slump, says Stephen Gandel atTIME, that started when it became clear that Washington was close to a debt deal. That’s because the deal cuts spending precisely when the economy needs government to spend more. And the savings comes largely from gutting programs that help the poor, increasing income inequality. Struggling families spend every dime they get, boosting the economy. The rich have so much already that they put any “extra wealth” into savings, where it does little to stimulate the economy.

2. European debt is frightening investors
The European Central Bank is trying to reassure markets, says Graham Bowley at The New York Times, but it “ended up spooking investors.” The bank bought up bonds from small European countries as a show of support, but it left out Italy and Spain, “whose mounting troubles have come into the spotlight.” Investors took this “as a sign that the recent rescue packages by Europe could soon be overwhelmed by the huge debt burdens in those two countries” — and they panicked.

3. Investors are freaked out about a double-dip recession
There’s no great mystery — the markets are pricing in “the growing risk of a double dip” recession, says Allahpundit at Hot Air. We’ve just been slammed by a string of devastating economic reports showing that, among other things, the economy has essentially stopped growing, unemployment isn’t improving, and manufacturing orders are down. The Obama administration isn’t creating jobs, but it’s scaring investors with the threat of new taxes and regulations. Add it all up and you get “total fear.”

4. Republicans are blocking attempts to help the economy
President Obama has no shortage of ideas to put Americans back to work,says Steve Benen at Washington Monthly. But the GOP has been overcome with “madness,” and it’s blocking every proposal that might actually help. “This is partly due to their radical ideology, partly due to their reflexive opposition to anything the president wants, and perhaps motivated by the belief that economic suffering should be encouraged in the hopes that it will make President Obama easier to defeat next November.”

5. It’s finally dawning on people just how bleak things are
“Whatever weak recovery we might have hoped for,” says Ezra Klein atThe Washington Post, “is being hindered by global commodity prices, consumer deleveraging, fears of flagging demand in emerging markets, earthquakes in Asia, and much more.” So where will the recovery come from? “As one hopeful hypothesis after another is dashed, the markets are beginning to panic.”

6. The media is fueling market panic
Financial analysts chalked up the sell-off, which wiped out Wall Street’s 2011 gains, to investor fear, says Dylan Stableford at Yahoo! Finance. But it’s also possible that wall-to-wall coverage of the “historic drop” on broadcast networks and cable news could have fueled the panic. Still, some experts doubt the TV chatter had much impact. “A huge chunk of volume — and hence momentum — is now driven by machines, computers and algorithmic trading,” says Dan Gross, economics editor at Yahoo! Finance. “And the computers definitely aren’t watching cable news.”

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