This is something so unhinged, that even I couldn’t dream it up until I read about it just now:
I was immediately reminded of what happened a quarter century ago. Prompted by the astonishing bull market of 1992 through 2000, George W. Bush made the notion of investing social security funds directly into the stock market a key element of his platform.
Below are a few specific instances when he made this assertion. Back then, it was mocked to some degree, because it seemed like such a risky idea to put “safe” government funds into equities, although these days it seems downright quaint.
In any case, Bush was offering this idea when the market was very lofty. As equities began breaking down in earnest after the summer of 2000 and crumbled into a bear market lasting over two years (yes, that used to actually happen), there was no such talk anymore.
Of course, the irony is that pouring government money into stocks when no one dared utter such an idea in late 2002 would have actually been kind of brilliant, but that’s not how these things go.
My point is simply this: for a major figure like Bush to be promoting such an idea at a market peak makes total sense with historical retrospection. I daresay that Trump’s much, much, much more risky idea that retirement accounts be pushed into crypto, of all things, will be remembered one day in a similar light.
