Stock markets climbed after Janet Yellin, President Biden’s nominee for Treasury Secretary, argued forcefully for increased stimulus spending in her 19 January confirmation hearing in the U.S. Senate.
The U.S. risks a longer, harsher recession unless lawmakers “act big” to strengthen the recovery, Yellin said.
The nation’s economic rebound is slowing, according to indicators that include weaker consumer spending and rising unemployment.
Yellin’s comments and several major banks’ strong fourth-quarter earnings reports set markets rising again after retreating the previous week.
The Dow touched an all-time high of 31,188 the day after Yellin’s hearing and closed the week just shy of 31,000. The NASDAQ index ended the week with a record close above 13,530.
The S&P 500 is up more than 13 percent since 3 November, its best performance from an election day to an inauguration since Herbert Hoover took the White House in 1928, the Wall Street Journal noted on 20 January; the markets’ rise is also their best during that span after a Democrat won the presidency.
The markets also have been buoyed by the arrival of COVID vaccines and Biden’s aggressive plan to distribute them… which, as noted in this Trends Journal, is at the same rate as the Trump administrations. (See our article, “JOE “C’MON, MAN!” BIDEN PROMISES VACCINATION RAMP UP.”)
TREND FORECAST: We maintain our forecast that Joe Biden will be America’s next Herbert Hoover.
As did Hoover, Biden will preside over a major market crash and father in the “Greatest Depression” when the U.S. Federal Reserve’s cheap money and low-interest rates can no longer cover up disastrous economic fundamentals.
Thus, the “Biden Bounce” to the economy will be short-lived.
