Stocktake: Foolish Trump hit by market collapse

Donald Trump is finally learning how reckless it is to tie your political fortunes to stock markets. Trump has long claimed the credit for market gains; now, facing a bear market in an election year, he risks being blamed for the collapse. Just as Trump didn't deserve the credit for a bull market that began almost eight years before his election, he can hardly be blamed for the coronavirus outbreak. Still, his handling of the issue has been brutal.

Coronavirus ‘hoax’

Denying the scale of the problem, talking about the coronavirus “hoax”, cheerleading stocks after the initial minor falls – all that was bad, but last Wednesday’s Oval Office address really spooked investors.

The European travel ban, characterising it as a "foreign" virus and blaming Europe, insubstantial fiscal stimulus, getting policy details wrong – little wonder futures markets tanked in the wake of what Evercore ISI dubbed a "disaster speech". To quote Harvard economist and former US treasury secretary Larry Summers: "Loose lips sink ships. Imprudent rhetoric sinks markets."