I was inspired to write today after seeing the post below on the Facebook timeline of a relative of mine. I had to go specifically searching out said post because the relative put me on mute a few years ago after vague posting about me being too negative and hateful to follow any more, but because I actually love this person I do check in every once in a while. I would have posted as a comment there, but I have also been accused of only saying anything to them when they post something political. So it goes. Besides, I just spent a lot of time researching my response and I figured why not post it here where people beyond the cesspool of Facebook might find it.

So here is the content of the original copy/paste post…

I am making this post so it will show back up as a future memory on my timeline: Today is three days after the 2020 election. Gasoline is currently $1.80-2.10 per gallon. Interest rates are 2.65% for a 30 year mortgage. The stock market closed at 27,848, even though we have been fighting COVID for 9 months. Our GDP growth for the 3rd Qtr was 33%. We had the best economy ever until COVID and it is recovering well. We have not had any new wars or conflicts in the last 4 years. North Korea has been under control and has not been testing any missiles. Isis has not been heard from for over 3 years. The housing market is the strongest in over 20 years. Homes have appreciated at an unbelievable rate and sell within hours of going on the market, with multiple offers. I hope our new leadership can build on these things and can keep them going, but if I were a betting person I would bet that the only place we will see these results will be in this post

And here is my response…Sources are linked inline.

Based on data collected between 1993 and today, gasoline prices peaked in July of 2008 at $4.16 per gallon during the height of the economic recession. They bottomed out in January of 2009 at $1.73 per gallon during the first month of the Obama administration. The average price per gallon began to rise as the economy recovered and stayed over $3 a gallon until December of 2014, but it had been steadily dropping since June of that year. The average has fluctuated up and down between $2 and $3 a gallon ever since with a few exceptions, but the lowest it has been since the recession was in March of 2016. Prices have been trending higher since that time but dropped rapidly in 2020 $2.63 a gallon in January to $1.94 in May. This was due largely to the lack of demand because of the worldwide impact of COVID-19. As of November of 2020 the average price per gallon is $2.20.

Mortgage interest rates are historically low right now, but that is not necessarily a good thing. Those rates are based on the Federal Interest rate, which is almost zero at this point. There has been talk of that rate going negative, which in simplest terms means that the government would be paying entities to loan them money. The reason why the rate is so low is because the economic conditions in the country are tenuous at best. As of September of 2020, the unemployment rate was 7.9%, and that didn’t factor in the estimated 5 million people who are not currently looking for work due to the pandemic. This also does not factor in the nearly 2.3 million individuals in our prison system, with 56% of that population being Black or Hispanic. The housing and used car markets are indeed great right now – for people who can afford to take advantage of the fact that interest rates are terrible. Meanwhile, savings, certificate, and money market rates are hardly worth paying attention to. You haven’t even been able to buy paper savings bonds at banks since 2012, and even if you could the rate is just as bad on those as it is for any other type of traditional low-risk investments. The only way to significantly grow your money right now is to invest it in the stock market, which excludes approximately 48% of the population (and heavily favors white households with over $100k in annual income).

The GDP did grow by 33% in the third quarter of 2020. It also dropped by 31.4% in the second quarter and 5% in the first quarter. Before that, GDP has had statistically flat growth for the last 25 years, with the exception of the economic recession in 2008.

The stock market has been growing at a steady pace since the economic recession of 2008 but took a major hit in March of 2020. During the pandemic.

North Korea conducted missile tests in March of 2020, and during a parade in October unveiled what appeared to be an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile.

ISIS Claimed credit for an attack that killed 4 in Vienna on November 3rd of 2020, and has claimed credit for many attacks over the last three years.

There are several upshots to everything I’ve just written here…

• The President of the United States, as an individual, as virtually no impact on the overall economy.
• North Korea is still a threat to the United States. So is ISIS. But, according to the F. B.I., the biggest threat Americans currently face domestically comes in the form of antigovernmental, right-wing groups of white supremacists. These groups were emboldened due to the messages sent by the administration over the last four years, starting during his initial campaign and becoming official during his inauguration in which he took an “America First” stance. The America First party was founded in 1943 and was an isolationist, anti-Semitic, white supremacist movement.
• Most importantly – It took me maybe an hour to fact check and write my rebuttal to this post, largely because I wanted to make sure I cited credible sources and had my figures right. I did not know many of the statistics above until I started my research. I didn’t know about recent North Korea or ISIS activity. Because I work in finance I was aware of the trends in the economy but I did not know any actual numbers. One of the amazing things about living in modern times is that we literally have the sum of all human knowledge to us available at our fingertips. Far too many of us do not use it. Read more. Research more. Find your own answers and do not let memes, headlines, and pundits dictate how you think. And whatever you do, stay the hell away from YouTube videos.