06

The most active thread yesterday was again the thread about Vice President Kamala Harris' choice for running mate. But I've already discussed that thread and will skip it today. The most active thread after that one was titled, "How will the stock market crash impact the elections?" and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. A similar thread was also created in the "Money and Finances" forum but I decided to leave both threads since they had different focuses. That thread was the 9th most active yesterday. The thread in the political forum was started early yesterday before financial markets had opened in the U.S. The original poster described stock market meltdowns in Japan and South Korea and predicted a crash in the U.S. market. He wondered how this would impact the election. Normally, the current administration receives blame for any economic problems that occur under its watch. Therefore, several posters thought that blame for a market crash would rest with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. However, as is the case with everything these days, responses mostly broke down along partisan political lines. Conservatives seemed eager, almost joyful, at the prospect of a stock market collapse. They couldn't contain their excitement over the opportunity to criticize Harris due to economic problems. Former President, current cult leader, and convicted felon Donald Trump posted in all caps on Truth Social that "STOCK MARKETS CRASHING. I TOLD YOU SO!!! KAMALA DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE." Liberals, on the other hand, suggested that we wait and see exactly what happens with U.S. markets. Moreover, they pointed to multiple significant market drops during Trump's administration. Some posters accepted that there might be a significant market collapse, but expected recovery by the Fall. All of this was before the U.S. markets even opened. Posters debated whether we were facing a collapse of the market that could lead to ongoing economic problems, including a recession, that could involve significant job losses or whether this was a simple market correction from which we would soon recover. Fairly soon it became apparent that this wasn't much of a downturn at all, let alone a major collapse. While on a day to day basis most stocks lost some value the market has grown so much lately that the set back was minimal at best. Just over an hour after the stock exchanges opened, one poster wrote, "Well, that market correction was short lived." Despite the constant complaints about inflation and equally common predictions of an imminent recession, the Biden/Harris administrations appears to have pulled off a nearly mythical soft landing. While economists such as Larry Summers predicted 10% unemployment would be necessary to control inflation, Biden and Harris have roped in inflation with unemployment around 4%. Based on today's market opening, I would say that we are already recovering from this "crash" and yesterday will be long forgotten by the November election.