There has been a lot of volatility lately tied to oil prices, inflation worries, AI-stock valuations, and tensions involving Iran, which led to scary headlines and some sharp down days earlier this month.
But as of today, major U.S. indexes were actually trading higher. The Nasdaq was up more than 1%, the S&P 500 was also higher, and markets were reacting mostly positive to signs of possible easing geopolitical tensions.
Richard Stern, an economist working for Advancing American Freedom (AAF), says Americans have long lived under administrations that did not prioritize what was good for economic growth.
"We're used to a stock market that doesn't grow as fast because the U.S. for the longest time had the worst business tax system on the planet, had one of the highest regulatory burdens on the planet," he tells AFN. "You name it, we had a problem."
Beginning with the George W. Bush administration, the US started having a lot of deregulations, particularly in the energy space, which led to things such as fracking.
During his first term in office, President Donald Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law. After returning to office in 2025, he signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which involves more tax reform and more energy deregulation.
Stern says "a bunch of things" have happened in the last 20 years, but Trump's measures in the last eight years, around the suppressed growth during Joe Biden's time in office, "have been massive shots in the arm for growth."
"Literally, the US has gone from having the worst business tax system on the planet for something like 50 years to having one of the best ones," he summarizes. "The stock market has gone up a lot because it's catching up to how good it is in terms of fundamentals for businesses to grow, to invest, to build out their capacity."
As for the high gas prices and the conflict in Iran, Stern acknowledges those are "painful things for consumers at the moment," but the underlying thing that is going on is an absolute change in the decades-long trajectory of growth in the United States.
"That's why the stock market's up, even though gas prices are up, and that's why I think most people are looking at this, including myself, are bullish about the near term as well," Stern says.
