Two interesting charts demonstrate the correlation, or lack thereof, between various economic indicators and a President’s approval rating.
First, from Gallup there’s this chart of Barack Obama’s approval ratings and the fluctuations of the Dow Jones Industrial Average:
Gallup also did a similar comparison for every President going back to Jimmy Carter and found very little evidence of a correlation between stock market performance and Presidential approval:
A Gallup review of the five presidents prior to Obama shows that there is no clear or consistent relationship between job approval for these presidents (Democrat or Republican) and the Dow
There seems to be a more positive correlation, on the other hand, between Presidential approval ratings and the price of gasoline:
Of course, this is likely more a case of correlation not necessarily equally causation, especially since there was much more going on at the time those polls were taken than just the increasing price of gasoline.
H/T: Patrick Appel and Derek Thompson
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