Sometimes events prove overwhelming, and otherwise capable presidents suffer unfairly at the hands of posterity.
At other times, however, a lying swindler of a politician finds himself on the precipice of well-deserved infamy.
For those watching in trepidation as global markets have plummeted on Monday, President Joe Biden’s comments on the state of the economy as recently as six days ago should serve as a reminder that the calamitous 46th president belongs in latter category.
According to the New York Post, Biden spoke with reporters around 1:30 a.m. last Tuesday following a trip to Texas.
When asked by a reporter how he wanted young people to remember his legacy, the president made a comment too dim-witted or dishonest to believe from nearly any other politician.
“That I’ve cured the economy and the environment and a few other small things,” he said.
So he “cured the economy,” did he?
On Monday morning, according to Fox Business, U.S. stocks plunged amid fears of recession.
Bill Adams, chief economist at the Dallas-based Comerica Bank, attributed the sell-off to poor employment numbers.
Is Biden to blame for Monday’s stock market tumble?
“The July jobs report is being viewed as a recession warning, and the markets are responding accordingly,” Adams said.
Meanwhile, a clip of Biden making his “cured the economy” pronouncement began circulating on the social media platform X.
“Well this aged like spoiled milk,” one X user wrote.
“I cured the economy”
– Joe Biden, days ago.
Well this aged like spoiled milkpic.twitter.com/SJccoHZLCy
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) August 5, 2024
On the social media platform Truth Social, former President Donald Trump acknowledged the seriousness of the situation and placed the blame where it belongs.
“STOCK MARKETS ARE CRASHING, JOBS NUMBERS ARE TERRIBLE, WE ARE HEADING TO WORLD WAR III, AND WE HAVE TWO OF THE MOST INCOMPETENT ‘LEADERS’ IN HISTORY. THIS IS NOT GOOD!!!” Trump wrote.
In a subsequent post highlighting the situation’s global context, Trump called the crash a “preview of the world markets without Donald J. Trump in the White House.”
Of course, no one wants to see a recession or, worse yet, a global depression. But when the world descends into madness, as it did in the early 20th century, disasters do follow.
In 1929, Herbert Hoover entered the White House with one of the strongest mandates of any president in history. His 444-87 Electoral College triumph over Democrat Alfred E. Smith in the 1928 presidential election came with a 17.4 percent margin of victory in the popular vote that seems unthinkable today.
Furthermore, Hoover had a lengthy record of impressive public service that even Democrats acknowledged.
“I wish we could make him president of the United States. There couldn’t be a better one,” future president Franklin D. Roosevelt once said.
In short, Hoover did not deserve to preside over the Stock Market Crash of October 1929 and ensuing Great Depression. Nor did he entirely deserve blame for it. In fact, he correctly observed that the lingering effects of World War I had helped trigger the downturn.
Biden, on the other hand, would deserve the infamy associated with a market crash during his administration.
After all, if the current sell-off began in response to a terrible jobs report, then it really began in response to Bidenomics, which very obviously has “cured” nothing.
