The stock market is not the economy. Trump doesn’t get any credit for anything.

Of all of the intentionally myopic takes on the Trump economy so far, this one grinds my gears the most. Yes, it is factually correct to say that there's economic activity outside publicly traded companies. However, the stock market is an effective gauge of investor confidence and a sign of the overall economic climate. It's delusional to try and act like the huge shift in stance toward big business and tax reform hasn't roused some executives to aggressively expand.

To take things to extremes for the sake of illustration, you could also say that violent suppression of a specific religion under an authoritarian regime doesn't describe the human rights stance of that regime. Is that possible? Yes. Is that likely? Not very.

Agreed — I’m not crediting him.

I’m also not blaming him. At least, not for this specific story that this particular thread is commenting on; there’s plenty I do blame him for.

No, but it is an indicator of how rich people feel about it.

When they feel good about something they invest in it. When they don't they invest in gold, or something else.