Posted on 03/04/2009 10:07:42 AM PST by Michael Eden
Remember how Barack Obama used the word "crisis" about the economy more than 25 times in a Phoenix, Arizona speech meant to fearmonger the country into passing his massive social spending "stimulus" bill?
Well, now he is just as sure that there's nothing but blue skies ahead. Sure with your money, at least.
Bullish Obama Suggests Nation Should Buy! Buy!The funny thing is that Obama's reasurrances reminded me of similar reasurrances by another Democrat, Barney Frank.March 03, 2009 1:29 PM
President Obama told Americans to take a look at investing in the stock market this afternoon, a remarkable utterance for an American president, especially as the Dow Jones Industrial Average proceeds on its course Southward.
"What you're now seeing is ... profit and earning ratios are starting to get to the point where buying stocks is a potentially good deal if you've got a long-term perspective on it," the president said on a day that trading continued to hover under 7,000.
The president predicted that Americans' consumer confidence would improve as they see the stimulus bill "taking root."
"Businesses are starting to see opportunities for investment and potential hiring," he said. "We are going to start creating jobs again."
On July 14, 2008, Barney Frank said:
REP. BARNEY FRANK, D-MASS.: I think this is a case where Fannie and Freddie are fundamentally sound, that they are not in danger of going under. They’re not the best investments these days from the long-term standpoint going back. I think they are in good shape going forward.Less than two months later, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - which had plummeted 90% in value while Democrats (particularly Frank, as Chairman of the Housing Finance Committee) were in control of the GSEs - went belly up.They’re in a housing market. I do think their prospects going forward are very solid. And in fact, we’re going to do some things that are going to improve them.
WASHINGTON — Saying that market conditions have made it impossible for the nation's top mortgage lenders to sustain its loans, the Treasury Department announced Sunday the government is seizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.Barney Frank - who literally encouraged people to buy stock in these collapsing monstrosities - walked away from his mess completely unscathed to create new messes another day.
Sorry if nobody believes you, Barry Hussein. We've heard demagogues like you before, and we know what happened to the fools who bought your load of goods.
We know that the Dow has plunged 25 percent in value since you took office because investors and business people don't think you have a clue what you're doing. Because, frankly, you don't. And they are screaming out against your socialism, your pork barrel spending, and the sheer gargantuan size of your spending the likes of which has never before been seen in human history.
And you want your suckers - I mean, your fellow Americans - to risk their futures, their retirements, even their lives - to invest?
A recent ad points out that if we had spent a million dollars every day from the birth of Christ, we STILL wouldn't have even come close to spending as much money as Barack Obama is going to spend - JUST AS A RESULT OF HIS PORKULUS BILL. And he's continued to rack up spending package after spending package since then.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/K90Zpjvdlko&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0]
And you want to burden American taxpayers with more impossible debt to finance your liberal agenda and - you hope - somehow bail you out of the mess you're turning the economy into?
A Wall Street Journal article needs to be cited in its entirety:
The Obama Economy: As the Dow keeps dropping, the President is running out of people to blame.I brought up the fear CEOs and investors had about an Obama presidency back in October ("Actual Job Creators Favor McCain 4-1 Over Obama"). And "As The Economy Tanks Under Obama, Investors, CEOs Say, 'We TOLD You So."MARCH 3, 2009
As 2009 opened, three weeks before Barack Obama took office, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 9034 on January 2, its highest level since the autumn panic. Yesterday the Dow fell another 4.24% to 6763, for an overall decline of 25% in two months and to its lowest level since 1997. The dismaying message here is that President Obama's policies have become part of the economy's problem.
Americans have welcomed the Obama era in the same spirit of hope the President campaigned on. But after five weeks in office, it's become clear that Mr. Obama's policies are slowing, if not stopping, what would otherwise be the normal process of economic recovery. From punishing business to squandering scarce national public resources, Team Obama is creating more uncertainty and less confidence -- and thus a longer period of recession or subpar growth.
The Democrats who now run Washington don't want to hear this, because they benefit from blaming all bad economic news on President Bush. And Mr. Obama has inherited an unusual recession deepened by credit problems, both of which will take time to climb out of. But it's also true that the economy has fallen far enough, and long enough, that much of the excess that led to recession is being worked off. Already 15 months old, the current recession will soon match the average length -- and average job loss -- of the last three postwar downturns. What goes down will come up -- unless destructive policies interfere with the sources of potential recovery.
And those sources have been forming for some time. The price of oil and other commodities have fallen by two-thirds since their 2008 summer peak, which has the effect of a major tax cut. The world is awash in liquidity, thanks to monetary ease by the Federal Reserve and other central banks. Monetary policy operates with a lag, but last year's easing will eventually stir economic activity.
Housing prices have fallen 27% from their Case-Shiller peak, or some two-thirds of the way back to their historical trend. While still high, credit spreads are far from their peaks during the panic, and corporate borrowers are again able to tap the credit markets. As equities were signaling with their late 2008 rally and January top, growth should under normal circumstances begin to appear in the second half of this year.
So what has happened in the last two months? The economy has received no great new outside shock. Exchange rates and other prices have been stable, and there are no security crises of note. The reality of a sharp recession has been known and built into stock prices since last year's fourth quarter.
What is new is the unveiling of Mr. Obama's agenda and his approach to governance. Every new President has a finite stock of capital -- financial and political -- to deploy, and amid recession Mr. Obama has more than most. But one negative revelation has been the way he has chosen to spend his scarce resources on income transfers rather than growth promotion. Most of his "stimulus" spending was devoted to social programs, rather than public works, and nearly all of the tax cuts were devoted to income maintenance rather than to improving incentives to work or invest.
His Treasury has been making a similar mistake with its financial bailout plans. The banking system needs to work through its losses, and one necessary use of public capital is to assist in burning down those bad assets as fast as possible. Yet most of Team Obama's ministrations so far have gone toward triage and life support, rather than repair and recovery.
AIG yesterday received its fourth "rescue," including $70 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program cash, without any clear business direction. (See here.) Citigroup's restructuring last week added not a dollar of new capital, and also no clear direction. Perhaps the imminent Treasury "stress tests" will clear the decks, but until they do the banks are all living in fear of becoming the next AIG. All of this squanders public money that could better go toward burning down bank debt.
The market has notably plunged since Mr. Obama introduced his budget last week, and that should be no surprise. The document was a declaration of hostility toward capitalists across the economy. Health-care stocks have dived on fears of new government mandates and price controls. Private lenders to students have been told they're no longer wanted. Anyone who uses carbon energy has been warned to expect a huge tax increase from cap and trade. And every risk-taker and investor now knows that another tax increase will slam the economy in 2011, unless Mr. Obama lets Speaker Nancy Pelosi impose one even earlier. Meanwhile, Congress demands more bank lending even as it assails lenders and threatens to let judges rewrite mortgage contracts. The powers in Congress -- unrebuked by Mr. Obama -- are ridiculing and punishing the very capitalists who are essential to a sustainable recovery. The result has been a capital strike, and the return of the fear from last year that we could face a far deeper downturn. This is no way to nurture a wounded economy back to health.
Listening to Mr. Obama and his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, on the weekend, we couldn't help but wonder if they appreciate any of this. They seem preoccupied with going to the barricades against Republicans who wield little power, or picking a fight with Rush Limbaugh, as if this is the kind of economic leadership Americans want.
Perhaps they're reading the polls and figure they have two or three years before voters stop blaming Republicans and Mr. Bush for the economy. Even if that's right in the long run, in the meantime their assault on business and investors is delaying a recovery and ensuring that the expansion will be weaker than it should be when it finally does arrive.
Carter-era economist Doug Casey sees deja vu all over again in Barack Obama's disastrous policies, while Paul Ryan similarly sees a return to stagflation looming in our very near future due to all the massive government spending and debt.
In his book Fleeced, Dick Morris absolutely nailed the economy under Obama back in March of 2008 at a time when the Dow was soaring at 12,532:
"Obama's election will trigger a stock market crash and likely devastate the already slumping real estate industry. A selling psychology usually feeds upon itself and can often induce a market-wide panic. So the nearer Obama gets to power the faster the markets are likely to dip. So look for a sharp downturn as election day approaches, and especially in the period between the Democratic victory and Inauguration day. Obama will doubtless blame the drop on the outgoing Bush Administration, but it will be his own tax plans that send the markets into a tizzy."Meanwhile, even historically communist Russia and China are literally pleading for Obama to stop his high-dive straight into the economic mire of socialism.
But their pleas fall on leftist-ideology-deafened ears, as Obama first proposes $634 billion to socialize health care and now proposes a $646 billion economy-killing "Cap-and-Trade" plan. He is using the economic crisis - which he himself is perpetuating - as an opportunity (see what his chief of staff Rahm Emanual said here) to pass socialist spending that Americans would otherwise have never agreed to.
So Barack Obama is using the economic meltdown to impose socialism - which will lead to a permanent economic death spiral. And the only thing that will bail out his presidency is enough investors to bail out his economy at the loss of their own shirts.
I remember 9-11 like it was yesterday. I was involved in financial services with online firm. We had people out of the blue wanting to buy stock to help the country. A lot of people of modest means that wanted to invest $100 or less because that was all they could afford. It was patriotic, gratifying and also heartbreaking.
At the same time, Obama’s pal was shorting the U.S. markets. The h*ll with the kenyan-born marxist. The public and smart money are not buying because they KNOW he is a marxist.
The market is pretty cheap if you had a President like Reagan and a normal Congress. The Islamo-collectivist marxists are in control and it will only get worse.
I screwed up and forgot to say it was Obama’s pal Soros who was shorting the markets to drive them lower after 9-11.
I’d rather buy a put on it.
Tough. What if we don't want to? Is he going to behead everyone for their disobedience?
“I screwed up and forgot to say it was Obama’s pal Soros who was shorting the markets to drive them lower after 9-11.”
markets were going lower regardless of what soros did. no long would hold (there was no idea what other attacks might follow), and that alone will drive prices down, shorting aside. european markets were down ~10% by the time wall street reopened, iirc.
Like a generation or two.
He's destroyed our economy, he's putting everyone in the poor house, and he wants us to do WHAT? I'd rather spend that money on a measure of wheat.
A:On a cactus the pricks are on the outside.
Obama’s pal Soros
Soros has been doing many mulitive things to make America socialist. What the — - - he’s not even an American.
And before I get slammed, here's my philosophical rationale. I oppose the stimulus plan. I oppose bailouts. I oppose the Federal budget. I do not want them wasting my tax dollars! But, if they are hellbound determined to waste my tax dollars, then I'm damned sure going to get in line and try to get a little of my own money back. I encourage everyone to do the same.
Just to make sure that you hear it from at least one guy, I'm not "slamming" you. Anything but.
First of all, your personal sacrifice for your employees is both noble and the essence of capitalism (sacrifice now in hopes of a better 'later').
But I, too, intend to start using government benefits that I have previously NEVER used for sake of patriotism. Why now? Because we now have a government in power that doesn't value genuine patriotism, and in fact they will use every loyal American's personal sacrifice on their behalf to advance their political agenda.
In short, if these fools think government spending is a wonderful thing, then by all means let's help them spend their way into oblivion.
I, too, vehemently oppose the spending. If I could vote against it (and if my vote actually mattered) I would vote against it. But if they are stupid enough to hand out money, we might as well benefit from it until the people reject these bozos and we can finally get leaders who will practice fiscal restraint.
A:On a cactus the pricks are on the outside
My first answer was, "A cactus has spine," but your version is certainly funnier!!!
George Soros is lower than whale poop. But it is his values and political agenda that now dominate Washington.
Hopefully all of the lefties with money left will do this quicly as everyone else is trying to sell theirs. Then after the market takes another 1000 point drop they can then start to realize that Obama knows zero abut economics and even less abut governance.
Μολὼν λάβε
During the campaign, Zero said we should be able to withdraw
from our 401Ks without suffering the 10% penalty for this year
and last.
Yes, but it won’t be long before they nationalize (and I’m not kidding you; they’ve been seriously talking about it) the 401k system, claiming that the free market system is obviously (given the fact that the market despises Obama and his policies) no place to put our retirement.
Whenever a nation becomes truly godless, government steps in to fill the void as the people’s Savior and their God.
I like my God - and my money - out of the government’s hands.
From Glenn Beck:
BECK: OK. So here, Jonah, is -- I mean, you are a guy who has been looking at the progressive movement for a very long time. Your book, "Liberal Fascism" -- and please, America, read this book. It's fantastic. Especially liberals read it.
I mean, you should know that there have been people that have been orchestrating stuff for a very long time. That's why I ask you, is this part of some grand design? I don't know if you know the name Ezra Taft Benson, but he was the secretary of agriculture back in the 1950s under Eisenhower.
GOLDBERG: Eisenhower, yes.
BECK: He said, he met with Khrushchev and he came back and he said, "Khrushchev told me," he said, "You Americans are so stupid and arrogant. You think you're going to win. Your grandchildren will live under communist rule."
And Ezra Taft Benson said, "You're crazy. That will never happen. You don't know America. We'll fight you until the last man."
And he said, "We're just going to feed you socialism dribs and drabs until one day you wake up and you're living under our rule." He said it would happen by the time, he said, "Mr. Benson, your grandchildren will live under that system."
I'm having dinner with his grandchildren this Saturday.
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