It's clearly amateur hour in the White House. While you can't possibly blame Obama for this recession, you most certainly can blame his agenda for inspiring this kind of panic, further throwing us into the abyss. Federal expansion, higher taxes, trillions in spending, and an anti-capitalist agenda are scaring the hell out the market. This used to only mean 'the rich'. Today, even if you don't have a penny in the market personally, your retirement, your employer, and your neighbor does. As their wealth is destroyed, so goes your future . Where is our President as the people of this nation lose trillions in wealth? My guess is he's looking for others to blame... A task getting more absurd as the weeks go by. Maybe next time we'll ask for a little substance to go along with our desire to have a leader who can deliver a pretty speech. So much for on the job training for the President of the United States.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Stimulus Fail
It's clearly amateur hour in the White House. While you can't possibly blame Obama for this recession, you most certainly can blame his agenda for inspiring this kind of panic, further throwing us into the abyss. Federal expansion, higher taxes, trillions in spending, and an anti-capitalist agenda are scaring the hell out the market. This used to only mean 'the rich'. Today, even if you don't have a penny in the market personally, your retirement, your employer, and your neighbor does. As their wealth is destroyed, so goes your future . Where is our President as the people of this nation lose trillions in wealth? My guess is he's looking for others to blame... A task getting more absurd as the weeks go by. Maybe next time we'll ask for a little substance to go along with our desire to have a leader who can deliver a pretty speech. So much for on the job training for the President of the United States.
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Dude, he is only 50 days in. Give it a little time. He has just barely begun to scare the shit of us and screw things up. It's going to get a lot more interesting.
I had a very interesting thought this morning as I listened to Sam Donaldson speak about the Obama administration in comparison to the Bush years when he said, "The kids are in charge." I thought, wow, could it actually be that Obama will make people think the Bush admin wasn't so bad. I'm already laughing about this becoming a reality.
I’m wondering how McCain’s Tax Cut Solution (aka Republican Panacea) would have helped the situation.
Would it have solved the sub-prime debacle?
Would it have unscrambled the Gordian Knot of “securitized instruments”?
Would it have unleveraged our financial institutions back to sane levels?
Would it have placed any kind of reality into the evaluations of the Credit Rating Agencies?
Would it have magically made “credit default swap” gambling any less bogus?
Would it have shored up global demand for American products?
Would it somehow, contrarily, have reduced the amount of cheap cash available to fund these speculative bubbles?
So regardless of all the factors listed above, the “panic” on Wall Street has its causation in the policies put forth by Obama, and not the stunning revelation that the Financial Sector had built itself up on a spectacular house of cards. Interesting. This is, of course, in spite of the fact that even in these troubled times the majority approves not only of Obama’s performance, but of his particular policies.
In addition, the Presidential Alternative, if you’ll recall, was a self-proclaimed newbie on economic matters and had advisors like “nation of whiners” Phil Gramm, to explain how the country was in only a “mental recession.” What kind of training would you consider that to be?
Wondering how McCain's steering of the economy would have worked has nothing to do with my premise, nor does it have anything to do with the shit hole we're in now. The issue is not Republican vs Democrat. I know this is how Obama must frame the issue to avoid any real discussion or dissection of his incompetent handling of the economy. I am sure the Obama administration is hoping the vast majority continue to ask the same questions you have in order to come to same conclusion: "Could McCain have done any better?". Followed up by: "We WON, so the majority wants whatever shit I come up with in dealing with a Republican recession". No, the 'Presidential alternative' was a game to be played pre-November 4. Unfortunately our President is still politicking, using Rush Limbaugh and cable news as the distraction.
These questions are extremely appalling considering the market's reaction (ie: a leading indicator and driving force of the economy) to what is being planned by this administration. You cannot deny the amount of wealth lost since January 19th, and especially after Obama's budget, healthcare, and mortgage proposals. It's staggering to say the least. The continued loss of jobs is not simply companies at the tail end of a bad economy, but is an indicator that they are bracing for what is to come.
I honestly can't understand how anyone who actually works for a living and simply wishes to pay their bills and take care of their family is swallowing Obama's rhetoric. Why can't we request of the President to put aside his political agenda for a couple of years and give us a f*cking break? Higher taxes, Healthcare, Cap and Trade, Carbon Offsets, free houses... Trillions in bailouts that have produced NO results and a budget that will actually require us to print money.
Nothing would have turned back time to undo the mistakes of Bush, Congress, the banks, and the illegal immigrants who bought million dollar homes on minimum wage. However, everything is now being done to make it a whole lot worse all for the sake of political gain... Never let a crisis go to waste, right?
The “we won, so shut it!” response is as repulsive now as it was during the previous administration. There absolutely is/should be a role for the opposition party to keep the majority honest through the tool of oversight, and to remind everyone that there are alternative views to those of the majority.
Unfortunately there are only two real parties and they maintain fairly diametrically opposed ideas on how to make things better. In that respect it is a Republican v. Democratic issue. Furthermore the strategy of Tax Cuts as a solution to all economic problems has been repudiated by the electorate and recent history.
It’s true that there has been a tremendous amount of money lost; however boldly stating that it’s caused even primarily by Obama is ridiculous. Do you think that if he would have proposed tax-cuts only that the Dow would still be above 12k? 10k? The Market stops going down when there is stability returned to the banking system. There must be plenty of bargains out there but even good companies are at risk because the financial environment is so perilous and unstable. Simplification. Regulation. Transparency. How that is to be done isn’t exactly an easy proposition, though. The previous administration proved that throwing tons of no-strings attached money wasn’t the answer. Is there another answer short of nationalization? Dunno. Sounds like the current administration is trying to avoid that.
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I’m not sure how everything being done is making it worse. I’d think the biggest possible political gain for Obama would be pulling up out of this nose-dive sooner, rather than later. Wouldn’t that truly get him Beatified by the masses? (Assuming full Canonization is only posthumous).
The two-party system is the bane of our existence. I must locate the identity of the founding father who warned us against such folly.
Corporate greed = executive greed. AIG bonuses? WTF?
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