Former Obama administration appointee and former Chairman and CEO of UBS Americas, the investment giant, Robert Wolf has had 40 years, as he vouched, of experience in the financial markets.
Wolf called on that experience during a Fox News interview to deliver perspective on the stock market volatility over the past few days — and to try to present some facts about the economy.
Wolf countered a political narrative that tries to portray the current market correction as a “Kamala Crash,” an assignation spearheaded by the GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, who claims that world markets fear a Harris presidency and also that the Biden-Harris administration’s economic policies are responsible for the current dip.
Fox guest: We should get the facts right. There’s more 2,000 day stock market losses under Trump than 500 day losses under Biden. GDP is higher, jobs are higher, wages are higher, and the stock market is higher now than under Trump pic.twitter.com/rlo7FLhuBM
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 5, 2024
Though the economy is not accurately represented by the stock market’s daily — or even quarterly — moves, there are correlations between the health of the economy and the health of markets over the long term.
Wolf downplayed the recent plunge and compared the respective successes of the Biden and Trump economic stewardships. Acknowledging the stock market isn’t the best measure, Wolf nevertheless cited the market as a metric because its present predicament was at the center of the news.
“There’s more 2,000 day stock market losses under Trump,” Wolf said, “[than there were] 500 day losses under Biden.” He added: “GDP is higher, jobs are higher, wages are higher, and the stock market is higher now than under Trump.”
Despite the drop since Friday, the market’s major indices are up this year and are up since Biden took office. Telling Fox to “get the facts right,” Wolf said that what the market gave back this past week was possible only because the gains have been so strong. The major indices notably also rose during Trump’s presidency.