The New York Times sees a dark cloud in every silver lining, when we have a Republican president. Especially Donald Trump. Thus, today’s Times email headlined: “The Stock Market Is Getting Scary. What You Should Do.”
The Dow and the S&P are both at or near record highs. So, what is scary about that? The Times subhed offers a clue: “Stocks Keep Climbing Past Bad News.” What is the bad news? Tariffs! But maybe investors aren’t so sure that tariffs are a bad thing, especially for American companies. Especially when foreign companies and governments are pledging trillions in new investment in the U.S. And when many foreign tariffs on U.S. products, and other trade barriers, are being negotiated downward.
The “scary” headline links to an op-ed that suggests the Times editors may have turned conservative. Suddenly, the Times is getting religion on spending and deficits:
Now, jubilant investors are pushing our market to historic highs despite President Trump’s tariffs and tax and spending policies that will increase the level of unsustainable budget deficits.
Where was the Times when the federal government racked up the highest deficits in our history, during the last year of the first Trump administration and all four years of the alleged Biden regime? When Kamala Harris ran for president as the heir to Joe Biden, was the Times warning about the Democrats’ “unsustainable budget deficits”? Maybe I missed it. But my experience is that liberals selectively express concern over the federal budget when we have a Republican administration.
No doubt the financial markets will decline at some point. The op-ed featured by the Times says, correctly, that you can’t time the market, and concludes rather lamely with this advice to investors: if you are retired, buy bonds. If you are young, invest in stocks. Revolutionary.
I think that what the Times really finds scary is the likelihood that good economic times will contribute to a Republican successor to Donald Trump winning the presidency in 2028.
