Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Bill Chapman]

I can understand why some people might not like Trump as a person or find some of his comments offensive.  That is a perfectly reasonable subjective conclusion.  But nice guys finish last for a reason.  I prefer results over words.  The comparison between a career, do nothing establishment politician like Old Joe who has accomplished nothing in fifty years and Trump could not be clearer.  Old Joe will have a team of lawyers and paymasters go over his every word to avoid offending anyone but he will accomplish nothing.  Lots of false promises, but nothing done.  Trump will make some cringe-worthy statements, but get things done.  I prefer the latter.

With Trump in power, it's too high a cost.

[Paul May]

Richard Smith, learn from this:

Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman starkly laid out the disconnect between the stock market and the economy in a scathing op-ed

Paul Krugman.
Brendan McDermid/Reuters

The Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman broke down the broad disconnect between stock markets and the economy in a scathing New York Times op-ed article last week.

In the article, titled "Stocks Are Soaring. So Is Misery," Krugman said investor optimism about Big Tech's profits would not go far, as people can't survive on "rosy projections."
Using Apple's $2 trillion market valuation as an example, he said that as long as investors expect the tech giant to generate profits in the coming years, they "barely care" about the US economy's near-term prospects.

In a New York Times op-ed article on Thursday, the Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman explained what's driving the "disconnect between rising stocks and growing misery."

"The real economy, as opposed to the financial markets, is still in terrible shape," he wrote in the article, titled "Stocks Are Soaring. So Is Misery."

He said that "the truth is that stock prices have never been closely tied to the state of the economy," adding that they were disconnected from indicators such as jobs and economic output.

Wall Street's fixation on mega-cap tech stocks has pushed the weighting of the S&P 500's 10 biggest components to record highs.

As of July 31, those companies — including Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet — made up roughly 29% of the S&P 500, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing data from S&P Dow Jones Indices.

That represented the largest share in data going back 40 years, The Journal said.

Apple holds the greatest weight in the index, roughly 6.5%. Last week, the tech giant became the first US-listed company to hit a $2 trillion market capitalization.

Krugman said that the market values of tech companies had little to do with their profitability or the economy. "Instead," he said, "they're all about investor perceptions of the fairly distant future."

Apple's price-to-earnings ratio stands at about 33, suggesting that only about 3% of the value investors place on the company reflects the money they expect it to generate over the next year, Krugman said.

"The profits people expect Apple to make years from now loom especially large because, after all, where else are they going to put their money?" he wrote. "Yields on U.S. government bonds, for example, are well below the expected rate of inflation."

Read more: RBC says buy these 48 stocks spanning every industry that are poised to crush the market if Donald Trump wins reelection

He added that "as long as they expect Apple to be profitable years from now, they barely care what will happen to the U.S. economy over the next few quarters."

He said that Americans could retrieve only minimal income from capital gains and could not survive on "rosy projections."

"Unfortunately, ordinary Americans get very little of their income from capital gains, and can't live on rosy projections about their future prospects," he said.

[John Iacoletti]

A chronically dishonest poster here has taken issue with the statement that virus cases are falling.  There is no need to debate it.  Take a look at the NY Times webpage today.  They are reporting that new cases are down 17% in the last two weeks and deaths are down 3%.  That means that the number of cases is declining.

Wrong again, “Richard”. The rate of increase may be slowing down as people (other than ignorant Trump supporters) take the virus seriously, wear masks and social distance, but the number of cases is certainly not falling.

Just like disputing that the market was hitting a record high.  It did.  That is simply a fact that anyone can confirm. 

Wrong again, “Richard”. First of all, the S&P 500 isn’t “the market”. Second of all, when you made the claim that the market was reaching record highs, that wasn’t even true of the S&P 500. It was just flat-out false.

[John Iacoletti]

I don't follow the logic of this.  People all over the world have died as a result of a novel China virus during this pandemic.  It's unclear what exactly any politician could have done differently.

Most of the other countries seemed to have figured it out.

Let me see if I understand this correctly though: good stuff that happens are Trump “accomplishments”. Bad stuff that happens is someone else’s fault. Yep, you’re brainwashed well.

If we are going to start blaming politicians, then look to the numbers and figure out in which states the most deaths have occurred.  Those states are controlled by dems like Cuomo who not only failed to contain the virus but attempted to destroy the economy.

Wrong again, “Richard”. As I already pointed out and you ignored, look at Texas and Florida. New York has largely contained the virus.

[John Iacoletti]

I'm confused.  There are numerous JFK conspiracy theorists who are Trump haters.  In fact, they constitute the bulk of Trump hating posters =  Tom Scully, Dishonest John, Martin (Roger Collins), and Rick.

Wrong again, “Richard”. Martin and I are not “JFK conspiracy theorists”. You can’t get anything right.

[John Iacoletti]

Dealing with numbers and facts instead of subjective hate rage:  The NY Times is reporting today that the number of new cases over the last two weeks is down by 19%.  The stock market hit multiple records this week.  Back in March, Fauci and the CDC estimated there would be between 100-200K deaths with full mitigation efforts and a potential for as many as 1-2 million deaths without mitigation.  That means that between 100-200K people in the US were going to die from the virus regardless of what measures were taken.  We are at approximately 170K deaths which means the death toll has been kept within the parameters of full mitigation efforts.  And a vaccine is in the works.  Not bad. 

“Richard” is forgetting which president didn’t think any mitigation efforts were even necessary (other than touting ineffective dangerous quack treatments that he had a financial interest in. No, that genius thought it would all disappear “like a miracle” when the weather got warmer.

[Colin Crow]

Richard Smith, learn from this:

Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman starkly laid out the disconnect between the stock market and the economy in a scathing op-ed

Paul Krugman.
Brendan McDermid/Reuters

The Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman broke down the broad disconnect between stock markets and the economy in a scathing New York Times op-ed article last week.

In the article, titled "Stocks Are Soaring. So Is Misery," Krugman said investor optimism about Big Tech's profits would not go far, as people can't survive on "rosy projections."
Using Apple's $2 trillion market valuation as an example, he said that as long as investors expect the tech giant to generate profits in the coming years, they "barely care" about the US economy's near-term prospects.

In a New York Times op-ed article on Thursday, the Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman explained what's driving the "disconnect between rising stocks and growing misery."

"The real economy, as opposed to the financial markets, is still in terrible shape," he wrote in the article, titled "Stocks Are Soaring. So Is Misery."

He said that "the truth is that stock prices have never been closely tied to the state of the economy," adding that they were disconnected from indicators such as jobs and economic output.

Wall Street's fixation on mega-cap tech stocks has pushed the weighting of the S&P 500's 10 biggest components to record highs.

As of July 31, those companies — including Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet — made up roughly 29% of the S&P 500, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing data from S&P Dow Jones Indices.

That represented the largest share in data going back 40 years, The Journal said.

Apple holds the greatest weight in the index, roughly 6.5%. Last week, the tech giant became the first US-listed company to hit a $2 trillion market capitalization.

Krugman said that the market values of tech companies had little to do with their profitability or the economy. "Instead," he said, "they're all about investor perceptions of the fairly distant future."

Apple's price-to-earnings ratio stands at about 33, suggesting that only about 3% of the value investors place on the company reflects the money they expect it to generate over the next year, Krugman said.

"The profits people expect Apple to make years from now loom especially large because, after all, where else are they going to put their money?" he wrote. "Yields on U.S. government bonds, for example, are well below the expected rate of inflation."

Read more: RBC says buy these 48 stocks spanning every industry that are poised to crush the market if Donald Trump wins reelection

He added that "as long as they expect Apple to be profitable years from now, they barely care what will happen to the U.S. economy over the next few quarters."

He said that Americans could retrieve only minimal income from capital gains and could not survive on "rosy projections."

"Unfortunately, ordinary Americans get very little of their income from capital gains, and can't live on rosy projections about their future prospects," he said.

Exactly Paul......economy can be weak when stock market is high.....they are not necessarily linked.