“For all of the fears, albeit legitimate ones mind you, about Obama the Bush regime has been an utter failure on economics.”
I like that you take it all into account. It is popular here to hang everything on Obama. There are those among us who have ODS, (Obama Derangement Syndrome). It’s very tempting, and I find I have to check myself on that, because I don’t want to become the right wing version of my left wing brother who has BDS.
I think that a lot of this can be traced to two key events. First is Clinton’s taking the restraints off of the CRA. That was like setting the clock on a time bomb. The second event was 9/11 and the response. In order to keep the economy from tanking, the Bush Administration dropped rates and tried to infuse the economy with cash. It worked, but it worked too well. The availabilty of cash below market value fueled a spending spree.
We’re paying the price now.
FYI: Bush didn’t drop interest rates after 9-11.
FReepers know that the present fundamental conditions are not the blame of 0bama personally. But there are others here that are trying to say that his election hasn’t had an impact at all on the forward-looking equity markets. That’s bull. 0bama is quite capable of taking a horrible situation and making it dreadful, just by doing what he has promised.
I don't think it's Obama Derangement Syndrome to state that no, we're going to be paying the price four years from now once Obama's short-sighted and stultifying policies not only wreak more havoc than Bush's did, but also cause any possible recovery to grind to a halt. The market knows this, which is why it's downward trend has taken on an even steeper curve since 4 Nov.