Fewer and fewer people defend the President these days, but when they do, their main defense of his antics is that is that, cad as he may be, the stock market went up 25% last year. This notion of crediting the president for what the economy does always struck me as odd. While there is no doubt that a badly run nation can lead to a poor economy, it does not follow that a president exerts any control over the day-to-day movements of the economy at large, let alone the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
My own view, for what it is worth, is that presidential actions take years to impact the economy in a meaningful way. Businesses base hiring plans and expansion on revenue over the long run; only a complete idiot would say, “Hey, Congress cut taxes, let’s open 200 new stores and build a billion dollar manufacturing plant in Ohio.” It takes months, if not years, of proven growth before most businesses will make the decision to invest more money in expansion. That means most companies needed several years of growth under Obama before they would consider hiring new people under Trump. Businesspeople are conservative for a reason — they don’t like losing money on random movements in the economic numbers. They sit, they wait. They don’t gamble on who sits in the White House. It’s common sense.
But I also wonder, why do people think credit for economic growth goes to the president and not to the people who run the companies? I just bought an Instant Pot, a product that has been selling like hotcakes lately. I am pretty sure the company that makes Instant Pots deserves a lot more credit for building their business than any of the elected squatters in Washington, DC. If I were a businessman, I would be insulted that a politician would think to take credit for my business success. It would be no different than if the CEO of my hospital pranced into the room of one of my patients and tried to take credit for my good medicine. But I guess that’s just me. Seems that at least some business people these days are happy to let a politician who has been on the job for a year claim the credit for something they worked hard to accomplish.
Imagine that you have a bad knee and go to see an orthopedist. The orthopedist tells you that you are a fat lazy slob and you need to lose weight to make the knee pain go away. So you go home, get on a diet, lose 50 pounds and start running 10K races. Then you tell all your friends your orthopedist is the best doctor in the world.
You can do that if you want, but you’re a fool if you do. All the doctor did is insult you. You did everything else. Stop letting politicians take credit for the economy; they don’t do anything but stand on the sidelines. You are the one playing the game.