Days before the last year’s election, pundits warned about the dangers of electing Donald Trump to the markets and the overall economy.
Look no further than Steve Rattner, the economic analyst for MSNBC’s Morning Joe, a financier and major Democratic Party donor, who days before the election issued apocalyptic warnings about Trump.
Rattner was not alone in this doomsday forecasts. Paul Krugman, New York Times op-ed columnist and Nobel Prize-winning economist, wrote shortly after the election: “If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never. Under any circumstances, putting an irresponsible, ignorant man who takes his advice from all the wrong people in charge of the nation with the world’s most important economy would be very bad news.”
Dallas Mavericks owners and frequent Trump critic Mark Cuban chimed in too.
Simon Johnson, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist, wrote that Mr. Trump’s presidency would “likely cause the stock market to crash and plunge the world into recession.”
One year later: The subsequent stock market’s gain ranks No. 3 in first-term, postelection markets since Dwight Eisenhower won the 1952 election, according to CNBC.
Here’s a breakdown of market performance by president:
Pundits who made these bleak market predictions should be held accountable for their accuracy. And perhaps we should take their next dire forecasts about the economic impacts of the Trump administration with a grain of salt.
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