Mainstreet Versus Wallstreet: Stocks Did Better Under Democrat Presidents (Workers Under Republicans)

Since the onset of Covid-19, Wallstreet, as captured by stock market indices, has significantly outperformed the overall U.S. economy. Since the fourth quarter of 2019 until the end of the fourth quarter of 2020, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index (S&P) soared by 14.6% as the overall U.S. economy (GDP) shrank by 1.2%. This has caused critics to argue that the responses of the Republican Whitehouse, and the Federal Reserve (Fed) to Covid-19, as well as other economic maladies, have benefited Wallstreet business interests at the expense of workers, and small businesses on Mainstreet. Is there merit in the critics’ argument? Figure 1 compares the ratio of the S&P stock average and employee compensation to GDP from 1985 to 2020. As presented, since reaching a low of 52,6% of GDP in 2014 in the Obama Administration, employee compensation has risen to 54.6% in 2019 (the latest data) in the Trump Administration. During this same period of time, the S&P stock average climbed from 11.1% to 15.4% of GDP. However, the Fed has been clearly on the side of the stock market by reducing interest rates during 2020. For example, the yield on the 6-month U.S. Treasury bond tumbled from an average 2.11% in 2019 to 0.37% in 2020. Table 1 compares the impact of 16 years of Democrat presidencies versus 20 years of Republican presidencies on stocks and workers. As presented in Table 1, stocks and business profits have expanded at a faster pace during Democrat presidencies, while worker compensation excelled under Republican presidencies. Likewise, the Fed appears to have been more supportive of stocks during Democrat presidencies than Republican presidencies by keeping interest rates lower. While differences between Democrat and Republican presidencies listed in Table 1 are not substantial, they are surprising and contrary to the popular narrative. Furthermore, differences may spring from many factors, just one of which is control of the White House.

Ernie Goss