If there is one merit where mainstream media has earned praise, it is in their tenacity. Despite the obvious blows to their credibility, they continue to fight a public opinion war against the government and the American people.
In their onslaught, they continue to attempt to paint Trump and his administration as inept, volatile and dangerous. If even a tenth of their claims were true, America would be in dire straits. Still, the relentlessness of their approach makes easy for anyone to fall prey to their tactics now and then. In that spirit, we’ll review the strongest claims and compare them to more reliable data.
Portrayals of Volatility
The stories of volatility are too numerous to break down, but we can hit some of the larger points. The first that comes to mind is the “scandal” with Michael Flynn. He was caught carrying out shady actions and he was dismissed. If this is in any way scandalous, it is because the administration actually held themselves accountable and took corrective action.
If you’ve watched the markets, they didn’t even flinch. The rest of the stories are small potatoes by comparison, but we’ll still take a look.
Remember when Trump signed his so called travel ban? In reality it impacted only dozens of people, and once again, the markets carried on oblivious. Still, the mainstream media has gone into complete uproar over Trump’s Twitter commentary on a daily basis. While they continue to try to paint him as a madman, the hardworking Americans are plugging along normally and the markets aren’t reacting badly.
State of the Markets
To say markets are normal is actually selling them short. Since Trump won, we’ve actually experienced the best Bull Run in over 80 years. That’s no small feat.
A quick review of numbers will note a few things. First, the stock market has grown more since November than it did from January of 2014 to the recent election. Second, it has broken every kind of record it can, and the result is a bull market that is ripe for making money. This shows us that investors, large and small, are managing money with more confidence than at any point during the Obama Administration.
It also shows that the changes Trump has been able to make so far have been economically favorable. Most of his orders are paving the way for larger changes, but the direction he is taking has only spurned further investment.
Most notably, is order in regards to the Dodd-Frank Act and the Fiduciary Rule have excited investors. If Congress follows suit, we could see tens of billions of additional dollars hit markets by the end of the year.
Historical Comparison
Throughout the election year we talked about how volatility impacts stocks, and we discussed why conservative investment strategies were likely to be favorable until the election was settled. There is a long history to support these trends, and ultimately, stock trends are one of the most reliable ways to measure a country’s stability.
The sheer size of American markets and their international impacts actually exemplifies this truth. When things are stable, the stocks grow, so if you reverse engineer the logic, the financial trends suggest that the U.S. is under its most stable leadership in many generations.
As always, things can change. Trump will inevitably be faced by crisis, and how he handles it will bear much more impact than his first month of executive orders. Until something potentially calamitous actually arises, the investment trends are easily putting media claims to the lie.
That, ultimately, is the crux of the issue. Twitter rants and biased public opinion polls hardly constitute quantitative evidence. That has never been demonstrated more clearly than when Trump surprised the liberal world to claim the presidency.
No matter how far the propaganda tries to stretch the truth, you have a reliable, almost unshakable way to measure this and any other administration. If the stocks rise, then the people are being productive.
They’ll always have complaints, but in a free economy, the way people spend their money will always more accurately reveal their state of mind and opinions than any form of media. In the meantime, the mainstream media is becoming visibly aware of their shrinking power in America, and it is only a matter of time before their obsolescence comes to bear.
Regards,
Ethan Warrick
Editor
Wealth Authority
