In article <p6qlivgv270kfj46komuhu8olg7pg25teo@4ax.com>, David Patrick says...

How, exactly, is this cut-n-paste relevant to UFOs?

Patty, have you been sniffing your glue again?? You are making
even less sense then usual, which is difficult for a useful idiot like you!!
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Twice as Bad as Hoover

George W. Bush is shattering records for the worst first 18 months in office for
a U.S. president as measured by the benchmark Standard & Poor�s 500. In his
first year-and-a-half in the White House, Bush presided over a 36.9 percent
decline, almost twice the percentage drop of Herbert Hoover, the president who
led the nation into the Depression.

Hoover recorded an 18.6 percent decline and now ranks third from the worst, with
Richard Nixon in second place with a 23.6 percent fall in his first 18 months.
In other words, in the 75-year existence of the S&P 500, no president has seen
the stock market index fall as much as one-quarter, before Bush�s decline of
more than one-third.

Ironically, given the Republicans� business-friendly reputation, the four worst
performing stock-market presidents in the first 18 months are all Republicans.
Ronald Reagan�s 15.3 percent decline joins Hoover, Nixon and Bush at the bottom.
The top two performing presidents, as measured by the S&P in their first 18
months, are Democrats, Lyndon Johnson at a plus 27.5 percent and Franklin
Roosevelt at 55.1 percent.

Bill Clinton ranked sixth with a 4.2 percent gain in his first 18 months.

While almost doubling Hoover�s decline in the S&P, Bush trailed the
Depression-Era Republican slightly in the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial
Average, which measures the performance of 30 top U.S. companies. In Hoover�s
first 18 months, the Dow fell 24.8 percent. In Bush�s 18 months, the Dow�s drop
was 24.3 percent. [NYT, July 22, 2002]

Though some presidents reversed the early returns of the stock markets, Bush has
so far failed to inspire confidence either with his personal performance or his
policies. The stock market has greeted speech after speech by Bush with
double-digit declines in the Dow.

Accelerating Pace

The pace of the stock market crash under Bush also is accelerating. In the 10
trading days since Bush visited Wall Street to promote his economic plans, the
Dow has dropped almost 1,500 points or 16 percent. [NYT, July 23, 2002]

The Bush speeches have done little to persuade investors that happy days are
here again � or for that matter, likely in the foreseeable future.  Bush�s top
economic proposals speak to different conditions than are apparent today.

His demand for a permanent repeal of the inheritance or "death" tax had more
appeal to Americans who were watching their stock portfolios swell in the
Clinton Era, along with their inflated dreams of multi-million-dollar wealth to
pass on to their descendants. Now, after a battering of their net worth, many of
these Americans are simply hoping to have enough money to pay for a modest
retirement.

Fast-track trade agreements also are out of sync with a world far less enamored
of U.S. economic leadership. Further, deregulation of industry and tort reform
-- backed by Bush and Republicans in Congress � have helped unleash some of the
avarice that led to corporate collapses at Enron Corp., WorldCom Inc. and other
companies.

Missing from Bush�s economic plan is any initiative that can inspire Wall Street
with visions of economic expansion. By contrast, the Clinton-Gore administration
promoted technological advances like the Internet that created a framework for
the private sector to innovate. In Election 2000, Vice President Al Gore also
proposed a partnership between government and industry to develop
environmentally friendly vehicles and alternative energy sources, in part, to
prime the pump for economic growth.

Major stock indexes are Wall Street�s rough measures of expected business
growth. At least during George W. Bush�s first 18 months, investors are judging
that those expectations are lacking � on a historic scale.