How many people can continue to argue that Republicans are good for the markets? The markets themselves obviously beg to differ.

Update: I wrote this in November, but it's just as salient today:

Republicans are bad for the markets. I blogged this over a month ago, but I don't think anyone would listen if I blogged it daily. As counterintuitive as it may be to the common and not-so-common person (including me), all the evidence shows that Republicans are bad for the markets.

Democrats, it turns out, are much better for the stock market than Republicans. Slate ran the numbers and found that since 1900, Democratic presidents have produced a 12.3 percent annual total return on the S&P 500, but Republicans only an 8 percent return. In 2000, the Stock Trader's Almanac, which slices and dices Wall Street performance figures like baseball stats, came up with nearly the same numbers (13.4 percent versus 8.1 percent) by measuring Dow price appreciation. (Most of the 20th century's bear markets, incidentally, have been Republican bear markets: the Crash of '29, the early '70s oil shock, the '87 correction, and the current stall occurred under GOP presidents.)