Trump, who inherited an historic market run and an economy at nearly full employment, has nowhere to go but down.
The trouble with taking credit for the admittedly white-hot market rally is twofold. First, as ProPublica’s Jesse Eisinger correctly points out, is the fact that the S&P 500, let alone the mostly useless Dow Jones, is not a reflection of the real economy. The stock market goes up when labor costs and wages go down, because it increases profit margins. Consumer confidence remained strong through 2007, as the U.S. economy plunged over a cliff into the depths of the financial crisis. And the “jobs!” market, which is about as strong as it can be without meaningful changes in the labor force participation rate, has nowhere to go but down.
According to Douglas Ramsay, chief investment officer of the Leuthold Group, Trump administration officials will come to regret gloating about the market&apos;s performance. That&apos;s because Trump enters the White House during one of the most richly valued stock markets in U.S. history. The last president to come in at such valuations was George W. Bush, and the dot-com bubble burst soon afterward. Bill Clinton began his second term in a more overvalued stock market in 1997, and exited unscathed. But if his timing were different by just a year, he would have been blamed for the early-aughts market crash.
Business cycles always come to an end, eventually. Trump, who took office amid one of the longest, strongest market expansions in U.S. history, is more than likely to be left holding the bag when the current exuberance cools.
But asked why he appeared to tie the threats to Democrats, Scaramucci pointed out that some Democrats got caught inciting violence at Trump campaign rallies last year.
Wells Fargo had previously estimated that up to 2.1 million customers may have had checking and credit-card accounts opened in their names without their permission over a period of several years. As part of an expanded review there could be "an increase in the identified number of potentially impacted customers," Wells said.
The search for unauthorized accounts now covers a broader time frame, from 2009 to September 2016. An ongoing analysis of customer data may also be turning up more affected customers, according to Wells&apos;s annual 10-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Goldman Sachs partner turned hedge fund manager turned movie producer turned foreclosure king turned treasury secretary has room for plenty of overnight guests in the nine-bedroom home he just picked up for $12 million, right down the street from new commerce secretary Wilbur Ross. And if you’re driving by and just need a quick bathroom break, the house has 12 and-a-half of those.
Evan Spiegel, the founder of Snapchat whose Snap Inc. went public today, is “sitting on a roughly $6 billion fortune” based on the opening price of $24 per share.