The Obama Dow Jones Death Watch

"This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal . . . and the Dow Jones Industrial Average began to plummet."


I apologize for being a little serious here, but it's Day 2 after the election and the Dow has plummeted again. Down over 10% in two days since the election. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea for the man to say, "You know, we're not going to raise taxes after all, and we're going to push for a capital-gains tax cut for everyone." I mean, the election's over, and he can say whatever he wants, including things that actually make sense.





The suck-up and spin headline award goes to AFP: "Despite Obama win, Wall Street turns to hard days ahead."

This one makes more sense to me, from AP: "Stocks plunge as investors ponder Obama presidency."

And if you think I'm just being mean and vindictive, consider this: It's the worst two-day percentage drop since the crash of October 1987.

Consider what this means, too: "World markets traded lower Wednesday despite strong gains in Asia overnight as investors booked profits after Senator Barack Obama won the U.S. presidential election and the Democrats took a firmer hold on Congress." Booking profits means they're expecting the market to fall. It doesn't mean what the article suggests -- that investors were somehow doing well as a result of the election.

Biggest post-election plunge ever.

UPDATE (11/8): OK, the Dow went up 248 points yesterday, recovering just over a quarter of the two-day loss. It won't go down forever.

But Dana Milbank, one of my least favorite Posties, made this amusing point about Obama's press conference on Friday:

When Obama began his speech, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 255 points for the day.

The AP's Nedra Pickler asked what economic measures he would take in his first 100 days. He offered boilerplate about how "my transition team is going to be monitoring very closely what happens over the course of the next several months." The Dow's gains shrank to 145 points.

ABC News's Jake Tapper asked how he would respond to a congratulatory letter from Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "I will be reviewing the letter from President Ahmadinejad, and we will respond appropriately," Obama answered. The Dow's increase on the day had shrunk to 131 points. Only after Obama disappeared behind the curtain did the market resume its advance.

Now that the election's over and their guy won, I guess they can loosen up a little.