The President, the Stock Market, and Liberal Bias

A New York Times writer says that Democratic presidents are better for the stock market:

Quoting The New York Times:

As of Friday, a $10,000 investment in the S.& P. stock market index* would have grown to $11,733 if invested under Republican presidents only (...) Invested under Democratic presidents only, $10,000 would have grown to $300,671 at a compound rate of 8.9 percent over nearly 40 years.

John Gruber picks up on this and quips that "Facts continue to hold a liberal bias."

Then Mathmatica co-founder Theodore Gray points out that the Times’ simplistic analysis conveniently excludes all of those pesky issues that actually apply in the real world, like inflation and dividends.  When you adjust the model to actually reflect reality, it turns out that Republican administrations are actually better for the stock market.  Oops.

Gruber’s response to this?  "This is not a good metric for measuring presidential economic policies."

Hilarious.