When Mr Clinton became president, the Dow stood at just over 3000, already a record. Today the '10,000 Dow' is firmly in dealers' sights. The real economy is thriving too. Shortly before Mr Clinton entered the White House in early 1993, US unemployment stood at a postwar high of 7.4 per cent. By early 1997 it had fallen below 5 per cent for the first time in 30 years, and last month the rate was 4.3 per cent.
Interest rates remain low, and inflation is officially almost non-existent.
For most Americans the staples of food and fuel are at an all-time low price, at a time when average earnings have risen 3.8 per cent in the past year. Though many economists warn of the calm before the storm, Mr Clinton can still point to what the commentators like to call 'the Goldilocks economy' - because, like the porridge in the story, it is not too hot or too cold, but just right. The buoyant economic news means that the federal budget is buoyant too, generating high tax yields and low expenditure on benefits and social programmes. All this is mirrored by a succession of indicators showing that Americans have never had it so good in other ways too. Crime figures for the first six months of last year, announced last month, show another 5 per cent fall in serious crime, with violent crime dropping even more steeply.