2009-02-21
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Portland — Stock Market Gives Obama’s First Month An 'F'
http://www.wowowow.com/post/liz-peek-barack-obama-economy-stimulus-214454?page=0%2C1
Today marks the one-month anniversary of President Obama’s inauguration. In his brief time in office, the president has overseen three massive new spending initiatives — the $787 billion stimulus bill, the trillion-dollar financial stability initiative and, most recently, the $275 billion mortgage assistance program.
...the stock market is off nearly 10% from the day before the inauguration, or more than 800 points on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
...Yesterday, in fact, we crossed a truly alarming divide. The Dow Jones average closed at its lowest point since October 2002
...For many market analysts, if the market crashes through that recent benchmark, it will next move significantly lower.
... let’s dispense with the antiquated notion that only rich people own stocks, and that the market’s ups and downs are unimportant. Almost everyone has a stake in our financial markets, either through owning stocks and bonds directly or through pension plans. Even the neediest Americans who are fed or clothed by charities are hurt when those organizations’ endowments crater or donations dry up.
...Delivering a 1000-page bill to our legislators just two hours before the signing deadline (and then going on a long-weekend holiday before signing it) was outrageous. The mortgage relief plan hasn’t been received much better. Most Americans (ninety two percent, by some estimates) pay their mortgages on time; they’re darned if they know why they should bail out their neighbors.
...The White House scramble has led to creeping fear that we’re dealing with the Junior Varsity. I’ve even heard people pining for former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson — hard to imagine, right? (No one quite misses Bush yet; let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.)
... Remember how Obama derided the “politics of fear?” He’s become its greatest champion.
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Feb 21, 2009 10:19 AM
I wonder how, suddenly, a President has anything to do with the Private marketplace and how suddenly your own writing about how Mr. Bush had very little to do with financial markets at all. Why don't you just admit that any plan that you would accept would have to come from the conservative party. Remember the price of oil in mid-summer '08; well, you wrote that the President has little to due with it. Hypocrit, all the way. As for the market loses, greed begets greed. Oh ya Sam, you should invest in Oil right now; it's really cheap and will make you a lot of money. Just think of it, you can get paid to do nothing.
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