Some of the world’s most famous investors – Jeremy Grantham, Ray Dalio, to name two, have been warning the US stock market is showing signs it is close to boiling point. But, this week Apple and Amazon released results that fuelled their share prices. Both tech stocks are in the S&P 500, which has risen 10% since Joe Biden’s January 20 inauguration, notes BizNews Premium partner The Wall Street Journal. “The index is on course for its strongest performance since the start of Roosevelt’s first term in 1933, when it gained 80% after the Great Depression. By comparison, the S&P 500 rose 5.3% in the first 100 days of PresidentDonald Trump’s term in early 2017 and on average has gained 3.2% over that period in presidential terms since Herbert Hoover’s in 1929,” it says. The Wall Street Journal’s report card of Biden’s first 100 days in the White House (below) provides evidence that the US president has been hard at work stoking the world’s economic engine. – Jackie Cameron
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Biden’s First 100 Days: Covid-19 Relief Package, Executive Orders and Appointments
A look at the president’s first few months in office by the numbers
Updated April 29, 2021 9:00 am ET
In his first 100 days, President Biden has signed into law a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package, proposed trillions of dollars more in spending and issued dozens of executive orders.
Here’s a look at his first few months in office by the numbers:
Mr. Biden successfully pushed through Congress the Covid-19 relief law, which included $1,400 payments for many Americans, and now he is seeking more than $2 trillion for infrastructure improvements and $1.8 trillion for family-related programs such as child care, education and paid leave. Mr. Biden says those proposals are aimed at boosting the U.S. economy, creating jobs and helping people return to work after the pandemic.
Several of Mr. Biden’s predecessors also introduced signature plans to create jobs and stimulate the economy early in their term. Compared with their proposals, Mr. Biden’s three packages would cost the most. Each proposal had varying rollout periods.
Mr. Biden, like some predecessors, came into office during a period of economic turbulence, with the unemployment rate at 6.3% in January, before falling slightly in subsequent months. The American Rescue Plan Act, the Covid-19 relief law signed earlier this year, is projected to help push the jobless rate as low as 3.2% in late 2021 and early 2022, according to a report from Brookings Institution economists.
When President Barack Obama took office after the 2008 financial crisis, the jobless rate was 7.8% and the recession had been under way for a year. It would last five more months and unemployment would climb to 10% later that year.
Mr. Biden’s party controls both houses of Congress, but Democrats’ majority in the House is extremely slim and the Senate is split 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tiebreaking vote. As a result of the hurdles he faces in Congress and his desire to undo many of former President Donald Trump’s actions, Mr. Biden has issued a record number of executive orders in his first 100 days, including 20 in his first three days in office.
Mr. Biden’s approval rating in public polls has been stable, hovering in the mid-to-high 50s, above where Mr. Trump stood at the same time but below other recent presidents except for Bill Clinton.
Mr. Biden’s policy proposals would increase taxes on companies and the wealthiest Americans and have drawn GOP opposition, but the White House points to public opinion polls showing voters support those taxes.
All but two positions in Mr. Biden’s cabinet that require Senate confirmation are filled. At the same time in his presidency, Mr. Trump had filled all but one such post, with one nominee awaiting confirmation. Another had withdrawn from consideration and been replaced by the end of Mr. Trump’s 100 days. Over time, the makeup of these groups of top advisers has changed as presidents created new departments or elevated certain positions to their cabinets. Mr. Biden, for example, is including in his cabinet a top science adviser, a position that wasn’t in Mr. Trump’s.
—Alex Leary contributed to this article.
