The S&P 500 has endured only nine yellow bears since 1950. Dwight
Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton were the only three presidents
to avoid Yellow Bear conditions. Interestingly, those three presidents were
the least intrusive into social causes. Dwight Eisenhower played golf,
following an exhaustive World War II. Ronald Reagan took a lot of naps. Bill
Clinton wanted to be intrusive, but he was stymied by a Congress with
differing views.
George W. Bush is the only president to endure three Yellow Bears. His first
two were due to the inevitable cooling in the post Y2k.com era and
aggravated by 911-terrorism. Bush's first yellow bear originated during Bill
Clinton's last year in office. Bush's third Yellow Bear one was due, in
part, to his getting along with the legislative branch. The newly elected
democratic controlled Congress in 2006 accelerated the process of
stimulating the third Yellow Bear of George W. Bush's two term presidency.
You should notice the Crash of 1987 did not invoke Yellow Bear status.
You should also notice that each yellow bear eventually works its way up to
Red Bull status.
The deepest Yellow Bear, prior to the one in 2008, was Richard Nixon's Price
Freezing, coupled with OPEC greed and militancy toward the West. OPEC
imposed an early 1970's oil embargo on the U.S. Shortly after that gasoline
price skyrocketed. To make matters worse, Richard Nixon and the U.S.
Congress, none of whom understand economics or simple math implemented price
freezing. Their arrogance and stupidity are difficult to comprehend.
The golfer, Dwight, and the napper, Ronald, according to the below charts,
were the two greatest presidents since 1950. All the others made one big
mistake; they thought they could make a difference. They did; for the worse,
as the only good thing a politician can do is undo their prior damage.
