BUT THE DOW!! [View all]

"The Dow is over 50,000 right now, the S&P at almost 7,000, and the Nasdaq smashing records. Americans' 401(k)s and retirement savings are booming. That's what we should be talking about" - Pam Bondi, February 2026.

That combative answer from Attorney General Pam Bondi in a House Judiciary Committee hearing centered on the DOJ's handling of the Epstein files actually revealed a lot about the Administration's approach to governing: as long as the Stock Market is making our people happy it doesn't matter what we do.

And to some extent that is actually true.

The economy is consistently rated as a top issue by voters.

And for the wealthy donors that drive policy in Republican circles, the Stock Market is king. Protect their investments and you can grab them by the whatever you want...and they will love you for it.

But the Administration has veered off course here. What tariffs surprisingly didn't do, a clearly under-planned foray into Iran based on a "feeling" by President [REDACTED] has finally managed to accomplish: the DOW has dropped precipitously since the start of the invasion--basically wiping out all gains for the year.

It was on its way down following the screeching Bondi's attempt at deflection. The DOW's high point for the year of 50,512 was reached just before her testimony. Since then it has lost over 2,500 points. With that drop the DOW is now down 427 points from the close on January 2nd of this year.

On March 3rd alone, reports indicated roughly $950 billion was wiped out of the U.S. stock market.

And one big reason for that is that investors are realizing that the Administration really did not have a plan--not for what comes next; not for making sure the Strait of Hormuz stayed open; not for how to reassure our allies of their security; not for how to reassure even the American people that the repercussions of this "war"--or whatever they are calling it today--will not reach our shores.

As a result, Americans' 401(k)s and retirement savings are no longer booming, and many of the wealthiest companies have been hit the hardest.

While the Stock Market isn't the economy, approximately 62% of American adults own stock, either directly or through retirement accounts like 401(k)s or IRAs, according to a 2025 Gallup survey.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/266807/percentage-americans-owns-stock.aspx

That makes fluctuations in the markets much less of an issue for just the top 10% than we sometimes like to think. Its performance is important to a lot of people, and its voice is heard throughout the economy--especially as it is still the way a lot of companies raise money for capital investment which creates jobs.

And now we get the report that the U.S. lost 92,000 jobs in February.

After telling us over and over how stupid our leaders of the past have been and that's why we can't have nice things, we are finally getting to see what actual stupidity looks like (again) when it grabs the wheel out of the captain's hands and heads towards the storm rather than away from it.

Whatever happens, at the moment it doesn't look like the DOW is going to save us. But then again, if there is anything our current incompetent captain does pay attention to it is clearly the DOW....