Bush and the Dow

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed today at 10,962.54. On January 19, 2001, the day before George Bush’s first inauguration, the Dow was at 10,587.59. That’s a 3.54% increase over 7½ years. Not 3.54% per year, 3.54% for the whole time.

If you’ve read about Arbusto, Spectrum 7, and Harken, the only thing that would surprise you about this is that the Dow is actually higher than it was when Bush took office. Of course, his term isn’t over yet.