Also, for all the optimism about the U.S. stock market and pessimism abroad, it was foreign markets that delivered for investors. From Bush's election to mid-2008, just before the global financial crisis sent stocks reeling around the globe, developed foreign markets were up 80% (priced in U.S. dollars) while emerging markets were up a staggering 300% (priced in U.S. dollars). Even if you include the huge losses in the back half of 2008, by the time Obama was sworn in, developed markets were down less than 3% from the time of Bush's election, and emerging markets were still up about 80%. (In contrast, the S&P 500 was down almost 27%).
The 2001 Recession, which was triggered by the bursting of the dotcom bubble and the September 11 attacks, came very early in Bush's first term. Fortunately for W., the Federal Reserve was able to support the economy by bringing rates down from more than 6% to just 1% (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) (which helps explain the swift collapse of the dollar). As a result, the 2001 recession was the shortest and mildest on record. In doing so, however, the Fed blew up an even bigger bubble in real estate, the bursting of which created a far bigger recession in 2008, propelling Obama into the White House.
But can the Fed ride to the rescue this time around? Given that rates are practically zero and the Fed is choking on trillions of dollars of assets that are permanently held on its balance sheet, the answer is clearly no. All the Fed will be able to do is launch the mother of all QE programs, perhaps in the form of a massive helicopter drop. But the bad news for Trump fans is that the result will not be a housing bubble like the one that bailed out Bush, but a wave of stagflation that will make Trump a one-termer. The nightmare scenario is that once again tax cuts and deregulation take the blame, allowing Bernie Sanders or a socialist candidate to ride another populist wave, only this one headed far left, into the White House of 2020.
Peter Schiff is president and CEO of Euro Pacific Capital.