Another Look at the Dow

Today I'm seeing news that the Dow finished at a six year high. That, I'll bet, will be fodder for the 32% of the country that supports Bush. They'll claim this means his economic policies are working. Now, I can point to wage stagnation, rising interest rates, and oil prices to suggest otherwise... But I don't need to do that at all. All I need to do is say the Dow should be at nearly 16,000 if the economy had simply done as well over the last 5 years as it did under Clinton for his 8 year term. The trend line in this graph cannot be debated, it is what it is. The BLUE trend line is what we experienced under Clinton and the Red under Bush. The good news is the trend line under Bush is finally sloping in the right direction. The bad news is, to catch up to where it would have been under the Clinton economy, we need to see the Dow increase by some 40% for the remainder of the year. Suffice it to say, if that happens, I'll eat my laptop.