Posted on 03/09/2009 3:31:17 PM PDT by Michael Eden
Did Obama Cause the Stock Slide? Wall Street has soured on the new Administration's policy moves. Can this relationship be saved?
Freerepublic only allows excerpts of articles - so I will provide the "red meat" of the article in excerpts. Since I believe that context is important, the entire article appears on my site here.
At least on Wall Street, the honeymoon is over for President Barack Obama.
Polls still show the President has strong popularity among the general U.S. population, and Obama continues to command power in Congress. But among investors, fairly or unfairly, there is griping that the new Obama Administration is at least partly to blame for the recent slide in stocks. Since Nov. 4, Election Day, the broad Standard & Poor's 500-stock index is off about 25%, and since Jan. 20, when Obama took office, the "500" is down 15%....
But BusinessWeek interviewed a wide array of investment professionals, and many said the first six weeks of the Obama Administration have soured their outlook on the stock market....
Others are more hopeful the government can ease credit conditions, but say the Obama Administration has bungled the operation so far. A Feb. 10 presentation of a financial-sector relief plan by Geithner was widely criticized. Stocks fell almost 5% that day.
Geithner was a "particularly poor salesperson back on Feb. 10," says Marc Chandler of Brown Brothers Harriman, who says he voted for Obama. "The Obama Administration has failed to get ahead of the curve."
Credit issues may be the chief complaint about Obama among investors. But they're hardly the only gripe. In recent weeks, Obama has made clear he intends to keep campaign promises on health-care reform, climate change regulation, and higher taxes for Americans who earn more than $250,000.
The impact of Obama's proposals are easy to see in particular segments of the market. In a speech to Congress on Feb. 24, Obama pledged a "substantial down payment" on health-care reform. David Chalupnick, head of equities at First American Funds, points out that, since then, stocks in the Dow Jones U.S. Health Care Providers Index (IHF) are down 16%. Health-care stocks had been a relative safe haven in the market, because medical spending tends to hold up even in recessions.
Investors aren't just expressing their political beliefs that taxes and regulations are bad for the economy. They're also making a practical calculation that they will hurt corporate bottom lines in the future. "What you're doing is lowering the profitability of these firms," says Bill Larkin of Cabot Money Management....
The problem for investors is the long-term outlook has never looked so fuzzy. With the economy deteriorating, the credit crisis continuing, and the Obama Administration still formulating a response, few feel confident enough about the future to buy stocks. It may be quite some time before investors find a change they can believe in.
Steverman is a reporter for BusinessWeek's Investing channel.
BusinessWeek is not a conservative source. The fact is that many analysts and business and financial professionals - liberal and conservative alike - have taken a far more committed position that in point of fact Obama is to a very large degree responsible for the continuing slide in the stock market since his election.
You can consider the "rant" of Rick Santelli on the floor of the exchange:
'The government is promoting bad behavior... do we really want to subsidize the losers' mortgages... This is America! How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor's mortgage? President Obama are you listening? How about we all stop paying our mortgage! It's a moral hazard'... -- Rick Santelli, CNBCOr you can read Larry Kudlow's article, "Obama Declares War On Investors, Entrepreneurs, Businesses, And More."
You can read the Wall Street Journal article, "The Obama Economy: As the Dow keeps dropping, the President is running out of people to blame."
You can watch CNBC's "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer (who is a liberal) "go nuclear" on Obama. His exit quote is, "This is the greatest wealth destruction I’ve seen by a president."
You can read the mea culpa of the New York Times David Brooks (a moderate) in which he is "forced to confront the reality that Barack Obama is not who we thought he was."
You can go back to a poll taken by Chief Executive Magazine before the election in which "74 percent of the executives say they fear that an Obama presidency would be disastrous for the country."
You can go to a Politico article written about the same time as the one above that anticipates a selloff if Obama won, and a much larger selloff if Obama won with a substantial Democrat majority in Congress.
You can read an MSN article written all the way back in July, 2008 titled, "Why Wall Street Fears Obama."
We can even go back as far as March, 2008 when Dick Morris was eerily prophetic in his book, Fleeced:
“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.”As investors for the most part rightly place the blame on Obama for both his mismanagement of the economy as well as his economy-killing social agenda which he has insisted on imposing upon the country in a time of crisis, as an average citizen living in the country you have to realize one thing: you will pay dearly for your president.
obamao never says anything positive.
>You can read the mea culpa of the New York Times David Brooks (a moderate) in which he is “forced to confront the reality that Barack Obama is not who we thought he was.”
Brooks is a “moderate” where?
There will be no economic recovery until Obozo is out of office.
What a croc ... on inauguration day his rating on Rasmussen was:
44% Strongly Approve 16% Strongly Disapprove
today it was
38% Strongly Approve 32% Strongly Disapprove
He's dropping like a stone.
Brooks is a “moderate” where?
David Brooks is the New York Times' version of a Republican, hence the term 'moderate.'
But you are quite correct: while he may not be a "hard core doctrinaire liberal," he certainly isn't anything approaching a conservative, and seems to spend most of his time criticizing conservatives.
Is that "Obama" plus "Mao"? I hadn't seen that before!
I don't know whether he's said anything positive or not: I've been waiting for him to either say something true or at least say something smart.
I've grown tired of waiting.
What the Republicans desperately need to be doing right now is four things. The first is to stand in the way of the Obama disaster as much as they can. But just as important:
1) Ask themselves the BIG question: “If we were in charge, what would we be doing?”
2) Then come up with an answer, with pitch in from every major Republican player. A formulated plan. A big one. A text book sized agenda of what the Republicans would do if they were in power, right now, and just as strong as the Democrats are.
3) Then bring in Wall Street. The top economists around. The best and the brightest. And give them one directive:
“Tear it up!”
Tell them to tear up the Republican plan with axes, chainsaws, fire, whatever. Tear it up one side and down the other, and tell the Republicans how WRONG they are with THEIR economic plan.
My point is to do it NOW. Come up with a strategic plan NOW, and troubleshoot it NOW. When they are out of power.
It’s a secret, so don’t blab to the Democrats. But when the Democrats screw up horribly and go up in a sheet of flame politically in two years, the Republicans have to be waiting and ready to ACT.
Don’t wait until Republicans are back in power to formulate and test a plan. That is a recipe for failure. DO IT NOW. Get your act together.
Excellent idea.
That is a VERY good idea. I would love to see Repubs do it.
Kind of like the Contract with America.
On the contrary Mr. Brooks, for those of us who get our information from conservative talk radio, One Big A$$ Mistake America is PRECISELY who we thought he was.
Does a bear SH** in the woods?
Well, Nancy Pelosi's sarcastic rhetort was, "Does the pope support killing babies?"
And then was ever so surprised when she found out he actually didn't.
UH....................YES!!!!!
No, he's a moderate whore. /sarc>
Cheers!
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Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment
Obama: “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”
Of course Obama and Obamanomics are the reason this is happening.
5) Internally censure every RINO and require they vote with their leadership or face losing all R $.
ping to the panda....I actually thought the panda could be another symbolic gesture.......:)
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