America Is Dividing Into Red and Blue Economic Blocs, and Red America Is Winning

From Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, the rabidly left/globalist Economist frets about the brain drain away from blue states and cities.

These trends play out across America. Along with Kai Wu of Sparkline Capital, a fund manager, we assembled 30 listed firms that are seen favourably by Republicans or Democrats, based on surveys. The process was inevitably arbitrary: there is no single poll that covers all companies. In the end, the Republican basket included firms such as John Deere, Fox and Harley-Davidson, whereas the Democratic one featured Etsy, Lululemon, Lyft and more. The recent market turmoil hit the Republican basket hard. But in the past decade its shareholder returns, including dividends, have thrashed the blue basket (see chart 3).

Why do MAGA companies seem to outperform? Maybe they eschew virtue-signalling. Point Bridge America First, an exchange-traded fund that uses the stock ticker MAGA, only includes firms that support Republicans. The Democratic Large-Cap Core Fund, with the stock ticker DEMZ, invests in companies that make big donations to the Democrats. Since the end of 2020 MAGA's price has easily outperformed DEMZ. Goldman Sachs, a bank, has built a stock index containing firms "that could benefit from key Republican policies", such as those in oil. In the past decade the share prices of these companies have comfortably beaten the market.

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There are more Buddy Garritys today. In 2024, 47% of Americans reporting annual incomes above $1m lived in Trump-voting states, up from 43% in 2014. Incomes among poorer folk are rising, too. Population growth is strong.

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Republican states including Florida and Texas are still enticing internal migrants. And with local consumer confidence strong, expect spending in MAGA-land to hold up better than in Democratic-leaning areas.

But-but-but Democrats are so smaaaart, obviously they should be making more money.

Why aren't they, then?

Well, for one thing, they're not that smart.

Also, a lot of them grew up being paid for by their wealthy parents. They lack drive and grit.

For another thing, they have certain "disadvantages." I'll allow FBI profiler Will Graham to explain.

Meanwhile:

A new national poll released this week is one of the first to indicate a bump up in President Donald Trump's approval ratings after a steady edging down in the president's numbers since he returned to office in January.
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Trump stands at 44% approval and 52% disapproval in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted Monday and Tuesday (May 12-13). The president's approval rating edged up two points -- which is within the survey's sampling error -- from the previous Reuters/Ipsos national survey, which was in the field late last month.

Likely fueling the modest increase in the president's overall approval rating is his performance on the economy. The new poll indicates 39% of adults nationwide give Trump a thumbs up on how he is handling the economy, up three points from last month.

Many of you will say "the polls are rigged." Yeah, I mostly feel that way. Still, it's something to see some upward movement even in a poll rigged against Trump.

posted by Ace at 04:25 PM

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