The media acts like a 10% drop in the stock market from the end of the year is an unprecedented disaster. Maybe they should talk about how automated trading, ETFs, and so many people invested in mutual funds cause declines to compound because these funds always have to rebalance.

Here are some highlights from a 100-year history of the Dow Jones:

1969: The year-high was 969.

1980: The year-high 1,000. The Dow barely rose during the miserable 1970s decade, yet the media and other Democrats were rooting for the reelection of Jimmy Carter.

1982: The year-low was 777. The market dropped a lot during Reagan’s first two years, as he’d inherited a disastrous economy with high interest rates, high inflation, high unemployment,and high taxes.

Reagan and former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker forced Americans to endure pain while they wrung out the high inflation, and Reagan cut the top tax rate from 70% to 50%, and then to 28%. Then the economy soared and revenue to the government also increased substantially.

In 1980, tax rates hit 70% for a single person making $107,700. They also paid state income taxes, gas taxes, sales taxes, and property taxes. They had little left to spend, save, or invest and little incentive to earn more. They had great incentives to hide income.

Reagan’s policies gave us almost 18 years of great economic growth, but the stock market hit an unrealistic high in 2000 of 11,723, which was up over 15 times what it was in 1982.

The Nasdaq also soared, which preceded what was later described as the “dot-com” bubble:

Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, investments in the NASDAQ composite stock market index rose by 800%, only to fall 78% from its peak by October 2002, giving up all its gains during the bubble.

While the market was hitting unjustified levels, the so-called financial experts, the brokers, and investment bankers were still pushing people to buy stocks. Not once did they predict the collapse that was to come. The media were too busy campaigning for Al Gore that they didn’t notice (or care) that the market started a precipitous decline eight months before the election.

By 2002, the Dow collapsed to a low of 7,286 which was down 38%, while the Nasdaq declined 78%. It is a shame none of the financial experts went to jail for selling stocks that had no earnings.

In 2003, George Bush passed sweeping tax cuts, and the economy came out of a slump. Government revenues also rapidly increased with the lower rates.

By 2007, the Dow again soared, up almost 100% in four years, to 14,165.

But somehow, the financial experts, brokers, investment bankers, Fannie, Freddie, the ratings agencies, and regulators at the Federal Reserve, FDIC, and elsewhere, didn’t point out the huge looming problem of real estate values, which had somehow risen much faster than people’s ability to afford them. It was a massive fraud, and somehow few of the financial experts were charged, and regulators didn’t lose their jobs.

By 2009, the Dow had again collapsed to a low of 6,547, or down around 54% from 2007.

By 2021, the Dow had again soared to a high of 36,489, up over five times, despite COVID and government-mandated business closures.

But in 2022 the Dow again collapsed to a low of 28,726, down 21% in one year.

Yet somehow, the media and the experts predict a disaster. They didn’t blame Biden and his policies for the collapse. Nope, they were too busy telling the public how great Biden was doing and hiding his mental decline.

By 2024, the Dow had again soared to  a high of 45,014, up 57% in less than two years. It skyrocketed over 56% in less than two years despite slow private sector growth, high inflation, high energy prices, a majority of people living paycheck-to-paycheck, few people able to afford homes, and a massive budget deficit.

Somehow, the media and financial experts didn’t warn people that the market looked too high. They just kept encouraging people to buy the market. After all, the media was too busy campaigning for Kamala and warning the public about Trump. They acted like it would continue rising no matter what the policies or fundamentals were.

The financial pushers of 2024 were no different than the pushers of internet stocks in 2000, and the pushers of real estate in 2007.

By the end of 2024, the market closed at 42,544.

And then, on April 4, 2025, the market dropped to 38,315 (or down around a fairly minor 10%) after the huge run-up, and suddenly it was Armageddon and we were going to have a worldwide disaster and of course it is all Trump’s fault. It is always Trump’s fault. 

And what is Trump’s big crime? He is trying to make sure that foreign countries stop levying such high tariffs, and putting barriers up to American products overseas. He did not start the Trade War. It has existed for decades. He is trying to make sure the U.S. makes more of its own products, all while reining in out-of-control government spending.

Trump’s policies of lower taxes, smaller government, more energy independence, more manufacturing independence, and a more secure border is much better for the American economy in the long-run than anything the media or Democrats have ever proposed. Trump is working to save America from bankruptcy.

Moral of the story: Don’t trust so-called financial experts or the media. They didn’t predict the previous Dow collapses, and they will always attack Trump instead of ever blaming Democrat policies.

Image: Free image, Pixabay license.