Markets see Obama the radical
posted at 10:45 am on March 7, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
After almost seven weeks of the Obama administration, the markets have already given the new president a failing grade. After the rollout of Obama’s stimulus plan, mortgage bailout, and the blueprint of his FY2010 budget, Wall Street has blown a big raspberry at the White House, losing almost 18% of its value since the inauguration. Hoover Institution fellow Michael Boskin says that investors have recognized that Barack Obama intends to impose a hard-Left economic agenda on the US in an effort to transform us into Europe:
The illusion that Barack Obama will lead from the economic center has quickly come to an end. Instead of combining the best policies of past Democratic presidents — John Kennedy on taxes, Bill Clinton on welfare reform and a balanced budget, for instance — President Obama is returning to Jimmy Carter’s higher taxes and Mr. Clinton’s draconian defense drawdown.
Mr. Obama’s $3.6 trillion budget blueprint, by his own admission, redefines the role of government in our economy and society. The budget more than doubles the national debt held by the public, adding more to the debt than all previous presidents — from George Washington to George W. Bush — combined. It reduces defense spending to a level not sustained since the dangerous days before World War II, while increasing nondefense spending (relative to GDP) to the highest level in U.S. history. And it would raise taxes to historically high levels (again, relative to GDP). And all of this before addressing the impending explosion in Social Security and Medicare costs.
Markets look forward, not to the present or past. Investors in any sort of market attempt to predict the future, determining where to put their money. They choose industries, companies, and aggregations based on where (and whether) they expect growth.
That’s what makes this Obama’s bear market. Investors have seen what Boskin sees, and they’re pulling out. They don’t see anywhere in the near or long term that looks promising for growth. It doesn’t help when Obama himself offers investment advice by referring to “profits and earning ratios”, since profits and earnings are the exact same thing and stock investors look at price-to-earnings ratios (P/E ratios). It also doesn’t help when Obama promises a clear recovery plan to investors and his Treasury Secretary — the “uniquely qualified” indispensable Cabinet appointee — shows up empty-handed.
Wall Street sees rampant incompetence at the top and has given Obama a vote of no confidence.
The question that Boskin poses is whether they see something worse than incompetence, and clearly, they do. The policies Obama espouses — tax increases, greater regulation, limitations on energy production — are explicitly anti-growth. All three kill growth in different but linked ways. All of them increase the costs on businesses at a time when prices can’t go up, squeezing people out of the market and into unemployment lines, along with all of the people they may have hired otherwise. That gives Obama a mandate for a nanny-state approach that he claims will be temporary but already has taken on the permanence of the European system that drives down growth and keeps unemployment at the levels we just reached this month as a rule.
It’s incompetence married to ideology. It’s a fatal prescription for investors, and they’re voting with their feet.
Blowback
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The world’s first affirmative action tan-American fascist tyrant!
Dhuka on March 7, 2009 at 7:41 PM
It really WAS an historic election!
We willingly installed a half-white half-wit to lead us into third world status. But – hey – it makes us FEEL good!
TexasJew on March 7, 2009 at 8:00 PM
Investment banks typically were partnerships and the primary money at risk was the partners’ personal wealth, which led to much more prudent behavior. Some have said that the banks should have remained private and I think that’s not a bad suggestion.
It’s not just individual greed, it’s also willingness to take risks. Without people willing to take risks, the species would stagnate. That said, I do believe in strong fiduciary standards and people in positions to take risk with other people’s money should be held to them. But, if a bunch of rich guys want to get together and finance some risky venture using their own money or money they’ve raised from accredited investors like high net worth individuals or pension funds, I don’t think the government should step in and stop them.
venividivici on March 7, 2009 at 8:01 PM
You were asking about analysis before. John Taylor out of Stanford has a good one on how monetary policy was another prime driver of the housing bubble. I think that’s on its way to becoming the “conventional wisdom” and it’s actually pretty reasonable.
Another place to find good analysis of policy and how it impacts the markets is the Federal Reserve banks themselves. They churn out dozens of good papers a year and on a pretty timely basis, too. And pretty non-partisan. Although, a lot of people were ripping Bernanke the other day for being too optimistic in his 2010 forecast, so the Fed researchers might be under the gun not to be too pessimistic on any forward-looking research, but their stuff on backward-looking questions is typically very good.
venividivici on March 7, 2009 at 8:05 PM
How about the Fed itself as a root cause? Manipulation of the interest rates really helped us out of this one! Remember in 1913 we were told “create the Fed and we’ll never ever have another downturn”. Uh,huh…
Moses99 on March 7, 2009 at 8:13 PM
And the rest of the world is in just as deep if not deeper. Central Banks seem less and less of a good idea.
Moses99 on March 7, 2009 at 8:14 PM
If we really believed in free markets we’d get rid of the Fed.
Moses99 on March 7, 2009 at 8:16 PM
If everyone gets the same access to everything, BIG EFFING DEAL.
Living with people like you is not some kind of evil. Get that idea out of your head because it’s libtard foolishness.
Dark-Star on March 7, 2009 at 8:16 PM
I am glad you raised the point of fiduciary responsibility. It is that responsibility that has been so starkly missing in the financial dealings which eventually led to this collapse. While you are correct that the investment banks were originally partnerships, they ceased to be that way for quite a while, and now they have completely ceased to exist.
Case in point: a little company called Evergreen Solar was funded by Lehman Brothers and a bank, which allowed the company to hire a bunch of folks, create innovative products, and eventually go public. However, ever since they collapsed, ESLR have had huge troubles in repaying loans, which finally were paid by the bank (aka “the people”). So, the investment banks have, for quite a while, been using public money as collateral for a lot of their projects.
Now, when things go up in the air, as they have now, people look up to the leaders of Wall Street, see how they have screwed up, give capitalism a big fat middle finger, and elect someone way left of center. Whenever those heading the ship resort to reckless looting, the pendulum of history swings inexorably to the left.
peter_griffin on March 7, 2009 at 8:25 PM
Thanks for the pointer. I like Fed reports, and irrespective of what people may think, I have a certain respect for Bernanke that I never had for Greenspan. Unfortunately, he is easy to crush, but that does not take anything away from his huge academic achievements and potential.
peter_griffin on March 7, 2009 at 8:28 PM
You might at well have stuck a finger down my throat. Puke.
Jamson64 on March 7, 2009 at 8:35 PM
Then they were fools to do so. Obama is a politician, an opportunist and a egomaniac who I fear believed his own propaganda a bit too much. He is no saint or savior. It is not the job of the govt to save us from ourselves whether we want the help or not at every hint of a crisis. We the people can and have lifted ourselves back up more than enough times that I know we can do so again.
Yakko77 on March 7, 2009 at 9:07 PM
Doctor Zero maybe my Hero.
Do you need any Commercial Real Estate?
GunRunner on March 7, 2009 at 9:15 PM
We can debate whether hope constitutes a commodity. And, more important, we can also debate whether hope represents our most valuable emotion.
Your fricking buzzword of hope looks fine on bumper stickers, and it sounds pretty harmless in speeches. But the question I have for you is hope for what?
Obama is destroying equal opportunity in favor of equal outcomes. And he’s destroying the pursuit of excellence and appropriate rewards for exceptionalism in favor of relegating use to mediocrity and the distribution of rewards as the political class dictates.
Define your hopes–marshmallows and lollipops and hugs and kisses for all? Spare me. Government has two primary roles: build the roads and defend the coasts. Screw all the ancillary stuff, and screw your hope until you can define what you mean.
BuckeyeSam on March 7, 2009 at 9:19 PM
One hope that I absolutely refuse to give up is my hope in the American people. We will emerge out of the recession stronger and more vibrant, irrespective of which politician is at the helm. Frankly, I am somewhat tired of these political figures and our so-called representatives. Let the people vote for all bills using a giant computer, and let’s get the country going!
peter_griffin on March 7, 2009 at 9:24 PM
That’s called democracy, and our Founding Fathers loathed the concept because it’s nothing more than glorified mob rule, even more vulnerable to mass influence and/or mass stupidity than our current system.
Dark-Star on March 7, 2009 at 9:39 PM
That’s a great sentiment, and one that should have been trumpeted by the White House since November. Instead we got fearmongering about a crisis leading to catastrophe, cynically using the banking crisis to advance a radical social agenda.
Ted Torgerson on March 7, 2009 at 9:39 PM
Be careful what you wish for. Acorn with the assistance of the OSS Hope and Change may go down to the boarder towns and offer to assist the downtrodden in return for a bus trip across the boarder to the nearest voting station. If that doesn’t work, they’ll just go to the cemeteries and start digging.
Upstater85 on March 7, 2009 at 9:44 PM
That is claptrap equal to Obama’s “Hope”. If you institute a socialist government in the U.S. there is no hope. The American People always rose to the occasion due to freedom and entrepreneurial Drive to Achive. A socialist government makes that impossible. The “(insert endless list of failed socialist governments here)”, Russian, etc., people all had an ability to suffer through and survive, but Life is more than just survival, it is the Hope of Success. Socialism robs that hope and replaces it with the bitter hope of the welfare check, the achivement grave of “just get along”, the hollow slogan tomb of “Come Comrade, let us go into the future together, things will get better”, and the socialist politics of pull. If you believe that Freedom not jealously guarded will succeed with “whatever politician is at the Helm”, then go try Venezuela. We need to Break these bastards, for they are breaking us. I already am in Tax Revolt mode.
Quick point. Obama is going to have to kill tax savings quickly. With the stock market tanking, lots of people are going to have capital losses, which will reduce taxes paid. Any projection Obamatrons are making NOW about how much tax they are going to get is a fantasy.
GunRunner on March 7, 2009 at 9:56 PM
Not if you have bionic scanning before each vote. Look, even the most perfect system can be gamed, but that should not prevent us from striving for that. And look at the upside – we will not have to pay a penny in salary for these empty suits!
peter_griffin on March 7, 2009 at 9:56 PM
I think you missed my point – I wanted to do away with politicians altogether, and replace them with a computer network with calculates votes on a bill, submitted by the people.
peter_griffin on March 7, 2009 at 9:59 PM
Two wolves and one sheep deciding what’s for dinner.
See Social Choice Theory and Public Choice Theory.
DrSteve on March 7, 2009 at 10:15 PM
You have got to be kidding. Most people would not have a clue about what they are voting.
Johan Klaus on March 7, 2009 at 10:22 PM
30-1 leverage
Vashta.Nerada on March 7, 2009 at 10:52 PM
We are headed for crush depth. Everything this administration is doing is killing the economy.
There are a couple of scenarios and I have no way of knowing which is right
1. Obama is really dumber than a sack of steaming dog poo and has no idea that HE is the cause of the meltdown.. Actually, not him, but his policies and beliefs
2. Obama is doing some type of Bond Villain mad scheme to take over the world.
3. He really thinks that he is doing what is best.
I’d really like to know just how much time he spent studying real economics, finance and accounting vice “Multi cultural studies of the inadequacies and crimes of the white european and american christian heterosexual capitalist males” or “The appreciation of alternate gendered people and their pet goats”
bullseye on March 7, 2009 at 10:56 PM
Our Leaders Are Unwise, Blind To The Holy GOD. Evil People, Evil Times (Judgement Slumbers Not) Surely Biblical Events Are Unfolding – Amen. I Tremble To Look Into The Coming Days, Darkness Is Gathering Its Troops, Anti-Christ Worship Is Strong. Be Not Deceived, The Almighty Works “Yea, Though I Walk Through The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death, I Will Fear No Evil” Keep The Faith, Those Who Believe To The End Shall Be Saved – Amen.
GD on March 7, 2009 at 11:32 PM
I see it as one of two things;
Either sock puppet is monumentally stupid, or he’s monumentally evil.
Either way, I can’t wait till this jackass fails and he either quits, or he fails and we can dump his sorry butt in a few years. Those are the lollypops of hope I hold.
Spiritk9 on March 8, 2009 at 12:11 AM
I can’t believe anyone can look at the facts and say this isn’t The Failed One’s bear market. Wall Street has been in a freefall since Obama took the lead in the polls, and its rate of descent becomes steeper every time he opens his mouth or sets pen to paper. He won’t be satisfied until every member of the formerly productive class is standing in line with a wheelbarrow full of BILLION dollar bills, hoping it will be enough to buy a moldy turnip or a stale biscuit.
If The Failed One truly cared about the economy, he could fix a couple of things this week; He could suspend taxes on dividends, give a tax credit to employers who have a net gain in the number of employees, and give a tax credit to anyone who buys a home – regardless of whether it is their first home purchase. The fact that his political instincts lead him to espouse and enact policies that are pointedly, and historically proven to be anti-growth is proof that he cares more liberal political hegemony than the well being and liberty of the American people.
When the Beej was president (AKA Triple H, the Horny Hick from Hope), I used to laugh at people whose cars, or more typically trucks, sported the NRA bumper sticker that read, “Charlton Heston is MY President.” Despite my unwavering support for the 2nd amendment, I found the sentiment petty and ridiculous. As much as I disliked it, and as dissatisfied as I was with his leadership, the Teflon Willie was elected fair and square, and he was my president.
I cannot find within myself the will to muster even that amount of “support” for The Failed One. I love this country too much.
Wingo on March 8, 2009 at 12:52 AM
Actually I didn’t mean it as a “bad” thing.. though I’m pretty sure DTMH (to whom I was responding) might take issue with it…
Skywise on March 8, 2009 at 1:36 AM
I was away from the computer all day and just saw this post of yours… I think it would be more correct to say that financial institutions were forced to make it easier for people they wouldn’t normally have considered sound risks to obtain loans, and the terms of these loans involved less equity on the part of the homeowner. They put less money down, and used financing plans that left them paying nothing but interest for years. It was a formula almost designed to produce a massive wave of defaults.
The Fannie Mae loan surge had a subtle effect that set the stage for the current crisis: in increased the demand for homes, and fairly expensive ones at that, by putting a lot more mortgage money into the market. The effect was more pronounced in some regions than others. In my home state of Florida, new home construction surged as property values skyrocketed, and any area where the property values normally would have increased, because the area was highly desirable, the distortion effect was even more exaggerated.
It’s harsh, but accurate, to say that most Fannie Mae recipients had less knowledge of how to evaluate and purchase a home than traditional home buyers. They gravitated to large developments with luxurious amenities, far beyond what they normally would have been able to afford. When I bought my first home, I was initially shopping for properties 40% or 50% more expensive, but in those days of tighter credit, I just couldn’t get a loan for that much money… and it led me to buy the right home, something I both liked and could afford. The formulas used by traditional lending institutions to compute mortgage availability worked quite well, but the new Fannie Mae world of big mortgages with low money down – presented to people with virtually no experience at home buying, and in many cases no intention of paying off the mortgage, since they thought they could just “flip” the property and make money – was like giving a loaded gun to a child.
When you attempt to compute the financial damage from the Fannie Mae collapse, it would help to bear in mind that the median $200k figure is probably not the best constant to plug into the equation, because houses at the very high end probably have considerably lower default rates. (I’m sure the figures are out there somewhere to prove this out.) Also, some regions were much harder hit by defaults than others, and some of these regions have considerably different property values – maybe the national median $200k is high for some areas that suffered a lot of defaults. And, of course, some of the value of these defaults is being recouped through foreclosure sales, and the higher-end properties tend to be foreclosed at a higher percentage of their nominal value.
Besides the big credit crunch, and the uncertainty poisoning the banking world, I think one of the reasons the subprime collapse caused so much economic damage is because it nullified the surge in new home construction during the 2000s. Money reflects the allocation of resources, and the construction of all those homes consumed resources that might otherwise have been allocated elsewhere – and now many of those properties are being sold for minimal profit, or sitting unoccupied and generating no revenue. In essence, the economy shifted resources away from other pursuits to build new homes, which turned out to generate no return on the investment, so we feel the effect of all the things that didn’t get done with those resources. Unlike the government, lending institutions can’t just print money, and X additional millions shifted to Fannie Mae mortgage loans is X millions that were not invested in something else.
Doctor Zero on March 8, 2009 at 1:51 AM
The “plan” is exactly what was presented. Do nothing.
At least it’s “Do Nothing” until top industries and banks are perceived as “must be nationalized”.
{^_^}
herself on March 8, 2009 at 2:39 AM
The reason stocks can’t stabilize here is that the new administration is promoting an agenda of inherent instability.
I’ve been writing this column for almost eight years now. If you’ve been reading it all that time, you know that if there’s an optimistic way to look at the world, I’ll find it. But I have to say, I’m getting pretty discouraged….I have to say, I’m beginning to worry that stocks are cheap for a reason. That reason may be President Obama.
–Don Luskin
I am not an American citizen, but my reading today has given me a new insight into why things remain so bad: the Cloward-Piven strategy.
I also learned that Obummer had his finger in the pie with regard to some of the factors that led to the meltdown – his involvement with ACORN as a community leader, trainer and lawyer. He was involved in lobbying to prevent stricter oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Then there is association with a number of people who are known Marxists, as well others who have had involvement in the meltdown: Jim Johnson, Franklin Raines and Penny Pritzker.
Obama does not want your American economy to revive or start coming back from recession because he wants to introduce a Marxist economy.
maggieo on March 8, 2009 at 3:30 AM
If I were an enemy of the US, say Osama or one of the idiot Mullahs in Iran and I were reading that the US now has a nitwit for a POTUS who has insulted the Prime Minister of England simply because he is “overwhelmed” with his job, now might be an excellent time to think about launching an attack on America! Be afraid of what this idiot is doing to this country! Be very afraid, right now!
sabbott on March 8, 2009 at 4:03 AM
if we are going to get off topic and talk about “obesity” then I am going to challenge the idea that it is a choice.
Obesity is allegedly the result of over-eating and having too little exercise but that is not the total picture. That is the picture or sound-byte given to us by libtards who have an inflated notion that only they are pure because they exercise and are vegetarian, or whatever their reason for a snub. However, people end up overweight for a variety of reasons including:
. use of steroid medication such as prednisone. These steroids can affect a person’s weight.
. the use of the BMI which is not in fact realistic in some cases such that some people are told they are overweight when it is not the case;
. in rare cases it is due to hormones;
. illness including arthritis that impedes exercise – ya know it is hard exercising when you end up with a sprained ankle, or some other injury, or you are in pain due to arthritis.
The issue of obesity has nothing to do with the subject and nothing to do with the measure of a good or bad health service.
BTW the British health system from what I have heard about it really sucks big time; the Australian health system is suffering because of attempts at socialized medicine – and we pay through the nose for doctor visits getting very little back from Medicare which determines an unrealistic doctor fee, and then gives back 85% of that fee, not what is actually paid…. it sucks big time and it is so hard to have to have to pay such high fees to specialists and get so very little back.
maggieo on March 8, 2009 at 4:20 AM
Why in the world would fiscal cons support greedy Wall Street after all the trillions they lost to create this bush depression and allow the President to achieve his agenda?
Once again, cons are on the wrong side and not with the American people.
Are you trying to lose?
getalife on March 7, 2009 at 12:35 PM
?????
Wall Street has not lost trillions. How about you do a little bit of resarch and learn about the housing crisis. Start by doing a google on ACORN, and start following the trail. You should come up with a few names associated with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, also Countrywide – quite interesting about the link between these three and certain names – and the link with ACORN is very interesting.
Make sure you check out who represented ACORN in 1995 when they first started hammering for securitizing sub prime mortgages. The lawyer’s name is Barack Obama….
Most of the mess including the tanking on Wall Street is due to ACORN and their lobbying. It is due to the passing of legislation that forced banks into loaning money to low income earners who could not afford to have a mortgage in the first place. This Bill was signed by Bill Clinton.
Then in 2005 when John McCain attempted to introduce legislation that would put the brakes on this lending activity, well we know who stopped that…. the Democrats and ACORN…..
maggieo on March 8, 2009 at 5:41 AM
It’s clear that Obama does wish to destroy all independent wealth and transform this country into an Ayersian utopia.
drjohn on March 8, 2009 at 8:45 AM
Good posting here and of late Ed.
Scary, the country elected a guy who’s only skill is delivering a speech well and only with a teleprompter, now we are stuck.
With past presidents they had the support of a First Lady that at least had perspective on the pulse of the party and Union.
Obama’s spouse is likely more liberal than he is. We can’t count on any grounding or perspective from his best friend.
Dangerous times…
FireBlogger on March 8, 2009 at 10:00 AM
OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S MOTTO: The buck stops here.
Dr. Charles G. Waugh on March 8, 2009 at 1:20 PM
GEE all i have to say is
YA think????
Morons absolute morons running our fgovernment..
these idiots couldnt run a fruit loops stand in an insanse asylmn..
jcila on March 8, 2009 at 3:01 PM
So you are saying Harry and Nancy do? See, eventually people do vote for policies, whether directly or indirectly. I would not have cared if the representatives did their jobs, but apparently they don’t. I am not in favor of having the public vote on each and every bill, which of course would be tedious. But, they should have a vote on major bills like TARP or the stimulus package.
peter_griffin on March 8, 2009 at 4:07 PM
Thanks for the elaborate explanation, Doctor Zero. I do agree that the resources into construction had a very very lousy ROI. In any boom, we have resources rushing into an area which eventually go to waste as the area goes belly up. Still, I find it hard to believe that we spent way more in construction than the actual market value of those houses. Some folks have mentioned leveraging, which mathematically makes more sense. But that does point to a “scam” outside of government’s meddling which could have been prevented by regulation.
peter_griffin on March 8, 2009 at 4:13 PM
The Manufacturing Belt sees vindication.
Wall Street’s motto:Citizens of the First World are overrated.
sethstorm on March 8, 2009 at 4:21 PM
I can’t believe I wasted a few seconds of my life reading this. If you want to gain any kind of traction in this blog with a liberal agenda like yours, at the very least present facts and figures that corroborate your point of view.
peter_griffin on March 8, 2009 at 4:26 PM
WH Budget Director today says the “current economic stimulus plan needs time to take effect”; same words repeated by Dems Sen Shumer & Byah.
They don’t mention what the rush was when President TelePrompter took AF1 all the way to Ohio, 2 days ago.
But it does kinda explain why our TelePrompter In Cheif is at Camp David this weekend!
TN Mom on March 8, 2009 at 5:13 PM
sethstorm’s motto: so let’s make everyone citizens of the Third World.
Who do you think does employing? Maybe it could be, um, employers? I guess you’re fantasizing of us all being on the government payroll, making exactly the same money.
ddrintn on March 8, 2009 at 5:24 PM
More than just the government. I just see a lot of businesses doing Benedict Arnold impressions.
sethstorm on March 8, 2009 at 5:35 PM
So the answer is to clear the table and let the government run things.
ddrintn on March 8, 2009 at 5:51 PM
Say, sethstorm, how do you feel about lowering the corporate tax rate in this country?
ddrintn on March 8, 2009 at 5:55 PM
My thought is that 20-25% is still too much.
I’d be comfortable with a yearly 5-20% stepdown until we have a fractional percentage. You get tax cuts that occur every year and the idea is to lower them faster than you can get support to raise them.
If that will provide for an incentive to keep work here in the US, that should be more than enough.
sethstorm on March 8, 2009 at 6:03 PM
The answer is to repair the image of business or to at least make an incentive to do so.
sethstorm on March 8, 2009 at 6:07 PM
OK, here’s the scoop. I finally figured out why Dear Leader is dithering on the banking crisis and letting Wall Street tank.
He needs to sell the T-bills that he will print to finiance his enormous debt. But, our previous best customer, China, isn’t too enthused about another round of buying American debt. Where’s the money going to come from?
Well, there was alot of money tied up in the market. Now, it’s fleeing at a record pace. Right now, that money is in liquidity (cash) but it can’t stay there for too long – it needs to get back to work. With the Obama administration gutting the economy, it won’t be safe to put it into private hands for a long, long, time. So, put it into T-bills, which are a gold-plated investment albeit with a low return.
Voila, Dear Leader has squeezed all the money out of the market and He can finance his Socialist Revolution. With the goal of making every American a ward of the State. Soon, they’ll be refering to Fidel Castro as a Senior Administration Advisor.
You, fellow American, are screwed.
lonesomecharlie on March 8, 2009 at 6:08 PM
My hat’s off to the left for getting America to swallow this bitter pill. This Government is out of control, and it starts with “The One”. Have we ever elected such a nobody to our highest office? Yes he went to Harvard Law, but is their ANYTHING he’s done as a Lawyer to make him stand out as a brilliant Jurist? Could you see him argue a case without a TelePrompter?
I don’t think he’s dumb, I think he is smart enough to know that when you want to build something new, you start by tearing apart the old, and leave nothing left. That is precisely what he is doing in my opinion. He does not want to renovate our house, his wish is to build a new one, he, Pelosi, and Prince Harry, are the Architects.
They care not what the Constitution says, unless they can use it to tear it apart. I have long thought that the main reason the left fights so hard to rid us of religion, is that if successful, our basic rights are now endowed to us by our Government, therefore, they can be taken.
Business will return, only it will be under Government control, with Union Labor. The gross profits will be divided by big brother, and big union.
This is not likely to end well.
M-14 2go on March 8, 2009 at 6:38 PM
When you have government guarantees, such as Freddie and Fannie, you can take a hella more risk. Just give a mortgage to a crack addict and then sell it to Fannie, problem solved. Well, at least they thought problem solved. :)
All they did was pass the cost on to the taxpayer.
Now, as to root causes, for that you need to look at the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. The Feds are privately owned, never have to show you their books, have no oversight at all, unconstitutionally print our money, loan it to us and we the taxpayer get to pay for the interest via taxation, and they get to fiddle with the interest rates and this allows them to create bubbles and burst them at will if they choose. They are not “quasi-governmental” at all, they are a private entity and they control a vast amount of the worlds wealth. They are the robber barons.
They are the root cause, wake up America.
True_King on March 8, 2009 at 9:02 PM
Read “The Creature From Jekyll Island” to understand what the FED is.
It is the vehicle that is creating the NWO, they see America simply as another territory to enslave with debt. And Bush/Obama are going right along without even knowing it.
True_King on March 8, 2009 at 9:04 PM
Oh, I don’t know if Obama is this incompetent; it takes someone truly talented to screw up this fast.
Snark aside, there is a reason why we have more affirmative action in the humanities and in recruiting for low-level positions than we do for engineering, medicine, or the upper echelons of businesses. Plain and simple: when you need a brain tumour removed, you don’t care if doctor learned in a diverse, multicultural, sensitive environment; you want the one with the steadiest hands, guided by the brightest mind.
The American people erroneously assumed that running the largest corporation in the world is a lot like being an anthropology major. Whoops!
Roxeanne de Luca on March 9, 2009 at 1:36 AM
Just compare Obama and the Democrat’s Platform, and what they’ve attempted, to Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party Platform.
History is INDEED repeating itself.
http://people.westminstercollege.edu/faculty/mmarkowski/H113/AH/platform.html
nelsonknows on March 9, 2009 at 5:45 AM
Yep, and that turned out so well for Hitler and the Germany people, didn’t it?
So, do we sit and let the Demnazi party take over?
izoneguy on March 9, 2009 at 8:39 AM
You assume that such numbers actually exist.
MarkTheGreat on March 9, 2009 at 8:44 AM
Which is exactly what will happen to the banks under the ones plan. So far the plans that you support are no better for banks than letting reality move forward.
They will be homeless, as they should be, but someone else will move into the house. Once again, your plan is no better for banks then if the govt were to do nothing.
This myth that everyone who has hard economic times is a favorite from the lunatic left. To bad it has no basis in reality. Much like the rest of their ideology.
MarkTheGreat on March 9, 2009 at 8:51 AM
I’m trying to figure out if you just like looking stupid, or whether you have no choice.
Nobody said that the market is predictive of the market. The market is predicitive of the economy.
You keep trying to push that old all or nothing garbage.
Either the market is a perfect predictor, or it has no predicitive power whatsoever.
Out here in the real world, we have learned that there are shades between those two options.
MarkTheGreat on March 9, 2009 at 8:55 AM
And that is a very good indicator of the future of the economy.
Maybe not one investors, but when you multiply it by the thousands of investors who have spent millions of hours trying to figure out what the future holds so that they can know where to invest, then you have one of the best predictive tools on the planet.
MarkTheGreat on March 9, 2009 at 8:58 AM
There are two types of liberals in the world.
The first type has no idea what the big words he uses mean. The second does.
getalife is a perfect example of the first. ckoeber is and example of the second.
Unfortunately, neither of them knows what they are talking about.
MarkTheGreat on March 9, 2009 at 9:06 AM
Now that we have completed today’s kumbaya moment, lets get back to those people who put their hope in distant politicians, rather than working with their neighbors to fix the problems caused by those politicians.
Anyone who puts their hope in someone else to solve their problems has already lost.
MarkTheGreat on March 9, 2009 at 9:09 AM
The only challenge presented by liberals such as getalife, is to see how long it takes to get him to start drooling on his screen.
MarkTheGreat on March 9, 2009 at 9:10 AM
Because a lot of people would rather wait for someone else to solve their problems than actually get out there and start solving them themselves.
MarkTheGreat on March 9, 2009 at 9:16 AM
By increasing demand for homes, the average price of all homes increased. When the bubble burst, all houses lost value.
MarkTheGreat on March 9, 2009 at 9:26 AM
My wife’s employer makes equipment used for building roads. They have already seen an increase in orders.
MarkTheGreat on March 9, 2009 at 9:27 AM
Sorry for the large number of posts in a row. I’m reviewing a day and half of posts, at a time when nobody else seems to be online.
MarkTheGreat on March 9, 2009 at 9:39 AM
It’s all over. 34% of the people believe they can’t earn a living without govt help.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/34_agree_you_can_t_earn_living_in_u_s_without_government_help
I guess this is the result of “investing your hope” in a politician rather than yourself.
MarkTheGreat on March 9, 2009 at 9:50 AM
Don’t discount out the market’s thoughts on defense spending. US Defense spending lowers the chance of major conflicts. By reducing that spending, we’re increasing the risk of more violence throughout the globe, violence that will disrupt markets.
hawksruleva on March 9, 2009 at 11:26 AM
That doesn’t count lobbyists.
sethstorm on March 10, 2009 at 8:56 PM
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