The Dow Jones industrial average topped 16,000 for the first time ever Monday, while the S&P 500 briefly surpassed 1,800. But neither indexes closed above those milestones.
The Dow rose to an all-time high of 16,040.20 but pulled back as the day wore on. TheS&P 500 rose to a record of 1,802.37 but finished the day lower. The Nasdaq fell 1% Monday, but it too is on the verge of a milestone. The tech-heavy index is nearing 4,000, a level it hasn't hit since September 2000 -- just months after the tech market collapsed. . . .the Dow and S&P 500 are up more than 20% so far in 2013.Right-wingers in this country have down their best to label President Obama as a socialist. If he is, then he's definitely the worst socialist to ever hold any power. Capitalists seem to be doing extraordinarily well under the Obama administration. Not only is Wall Street setting records, but corporations (and the richest Americans) are also making record profits and incomes -- and corporations are sitting on more money (trillions of dollars) than ever before.
But ordinary Americans are not doing so well (the people that socialist policies would help the most). Millions are still unemployed (most of them having lost their jobs during the Bush recession), the middle class is shrinking, the median income is falling, poverty and food insecurity is growing, and the minimum wage remains far below a livable wage.
The truth is that President Obama is not now, and has never been, a socialist. He's not even very liberal when it comes to economic issues. He's a moderate on the economy -- much like Bill Clinton. I wish he was a socialist, or at least a liberal, because most Americans would be better off if that was true. But he's not, and the only reason the right-wingers claim that is because most people would find their true reason for hating him to be offensive -- blatant racism.