Biden Should Take a Victory Lap as Stock Market Sets Record Highs

The Dow and S&P 500 opened at new record highs on Thursday, hours before President Joe Biden is set to give a speech marking an important milestone in the economic recovery he has successfully overseen.

The folks over at CNBC are giving the almost the same energy as Trump supporters who booed the rate

cut yesterday as they announce the all time high for the DOW and the S&P500:

CNBC: The S&P and Dow just hit the highest levels ever recorded in history pic.twitter.com/0sYVfq5YNR

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) September 19, 2024

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve (finally?) dropped the interest rate higher than expected, the first cut since 2020 (Trump pushed the Fed to cut interest rates to mask a troubled economy), marking the falling of inflation after the pandemic.

President Biden is no doubt buoyed by today’s stock market record highs coming hours before he delivers remarks marking the important milestone in the economy at 1:15 PM at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. For a preview of what he’ll talk about, check out remarks shared with PoliticusUSA by Biden Chief of Staff Jeff Zients here.

Three and half years in, it’s more than fair to credit Biden with the economic progress he’s overseen, which includes falling inflation and interest rates, rising employment, wages, and GDP. The White House made sure to point to their continued goals to help Americans, addressing long-standing affordability challenges, particularly in housing and childcare.

Donald Trump is running to be president again, so it’s necessary to draw a contrast to how he conducted himself. To that end, Zients contrasted Biden’s respect for the Federal Reserve’s independence with his predecessor’s actions, noting that Biden’s approach has proven economists wrong.

Today, with the stock market setting new record highs on top of the other markers of success, that claim has even stronger evidence behind it. Additionally, Biden makes sure his administration is laser focused on economic recovery for working class American families, in a refreshing pivot from neoliberal approaches.

While there is a lot more than needs to be done (especially in terms of affordable housing), it’s worth noting that all of Biden’s economic success comes on the heels of a year in which the legacy press suggested Biden had Parkinson’s, was too old to do the job, and should not only step down as a candidate for president, but perhaps also from being President.

Perhaps they got it completely wrong, missing that Joe Biden’s age afforded him the benefit of wisdom, as someone who has been in some form of public service through numerous economic calamities. The President used his experience to surround himself with the some of the most effective people in DC. He clearly struggled to run for office against a convicted felon while focused on numerous priorities — including the return of Americans detained in Russia, but the suggestions that he was infirm and incapable couldn’t be further from the truth.

The history books will tell a very different story about Joe Biden’s presidency than the legacy media managed during it.

“There is perhaps no bigger or more consequential untruth in American politics than the false belief that the economy does better when Republicans are in power,” political strategist and commentator on ABC News Simon Rosenberg wrote.

This is the economy Republicans are trying so hard to pin on Vice President Kamala Harris, and it looks like she should take that and run with it.

Democrats need to make more of their economic stewardship, not for themselves but to underscore the importance of taking the working class into account when approaching the economy. In yesterday’s call, White House officials were careful to note that Biden would not be taking a victory lap as this was not a declaration of victory. But maybe he should.

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