Posted on 03/10/2009 4:38:52 PM PDT by Michael Eden
CBS News reports:
When he took office on January 20, the Dow was at 9625, and it closed today at 6546, down 32 percent in the last 50 days.Imagine that: virtually a full third of our economy is just gone now. Well over two trillion dollars in American wealth has now gone to money heaven.
Now THAT is "Change you can believe in!" Get ready for more and more similar "change" (defined as your money changing hands into the government's coffers) as we proceed through this "historic" Obama presidency.
Mind you, the only people who are surprised by the crashing economy are Democrats and liberals.
Newsmax had a story out in June 2008 titled, "President Obama and the Coming Stock Market Crash." See if anything resonates 9 months after it was written:
How destructive to the U.S. economy would a Barack Obama presidency be?Former Clinton Administration official Dick Morris wrote the following in March 2008 in his book Fleeced:An exclusive Newsmax analysis warns: There could be a very rough time ahead.
Beneath Obama's flowery rhetoric lies a dangerous economic plan that will wreak havoc on the American economy.
Obama plans to return to the failed policies of high taxation coupled with an expansion of government spending.
Worse, Obama says he is absolutely committed to almost doubling the capital gains rate — something he will easily accomplish with a Democrat Congress.
In the coming months — when investors realize that Obama will raise the cap gains rate — there could be a stampede of asset sales as investors rush to take their profits now to avoid Obama's doubling of the tax rates next year.
“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.”Chief executive officers certainly aren't suprised by the dramatic economic implosion under Barack Obama:
Chief Executive Magazine’s most recent polling of 751 CEOs shows that GOP presidential candidate John McCain is the preferred choice for CEOs. According to the poll, which is featured on the cover of Chief Executive’s most recent issue, by a four-to-one margin, CEOs support Senator John McCain over Senator Barack Obama. Moreover, 74 percent of the executives say they fear that an Obama presidency would be disastrous for the country.....The question is, when will the mainstream media - which for the most part hasn't had a negative thing to say about Barack Obama since he announced his candidacy for president - hold Barack Obama responsible for the economy that is crumbling under him even as he announces further policies that are causing it to crumble more and ever more?In expressing their rejection of Senator Obama, some CEOs who responded to the survey went as far as to say that “some of his programs would bankrupt the country within three years, if implemented.” In fact, the poll highlights that Obama’s tax policies, which scored the lowest grade in the poll, are particularly unpopular among CEOs.
Right now it would appear that Barack Obama is employing a strategy that Ayn Rand warned us about:
"One of the methods used by statists to destroy capitalism consists in establishing controls that tie a given industry hand and foot, making it unable to solve its problems, then declaring that freedom has failed and stronger controls are necessary."Kevin Hassett (Director of Economic Policy Studies and a Senior Fellow at AEI, and co-author of Dow 36,000) wrote an article titled, "'Manchurian Candidate'" Starts War on Business" to put Ayn Rand's conspiracy theory (now we can simply rightly call it a "prediction") into perspective:
It is no wonder that markets are imploding around us. Obama is giving us the War on Business.And you can add to that CNBC's Larry Kudlow's (host of "The Kudlow Report") article title to that: "Obama Declares War on Investors, Entrepreneurs, Businesses, and More."Imagine that some hypothetical enemy state spent years preparing a “Manchurian Candidate” to destroy the U.S. economy once elected. What policies might that leader pursue?
He might discourage private capital from entering the financial sector by instructing his Treasury secretary to repeatedly promise a brilliant rescue plan, but never actually have one. Private firms, spooked by the thought of what government might do, would shy away from transactions altogether. If the secretary were smooth and played rope-a-dope long enough, the whole financial sector would be gone before voters could demand action.
Another diabolical idea would be to significantly increase taxes on whatever firms are still standing. That would require subterfuge, since increasing tax rates would be too obvious. Our Manchurian Candidate would have plenty of sophisticated ideas on changing the rules to get more revenue without increasing rates, such as auctioning off “permits.”
Whether due to sabotage or just shocking incompetence, Barack Obama is clearly going to prove to be a lot more "change" than Americans bargained for.
[Note: This post was written on March 9, 2009, and does not include subsequent market results.]
All we can do is hope that his laziness and cluelessness trump his evil intentions. He’s got plenty of all three qualities to go around.
Boy, what a fun next few years it’s going to be.
Come on he’s only in office a short time, give it 6 months and the market will double the loss.
Do you know that I actually read a comment on another site whereby a Obamabot asserted that investors are doing this on purpose to hurt Obama’s presidency? They are so stupid. No wonder they voted for him.
Imagine that: virtually a full third of our economy is just gone now. Well over two trillion dollars in American wealth has now gone to money heaven.
Since when is the stock market the sum total of America's economy?!?
The interesting thing is that those who predict the darkest economic scenarios - like Gerald Celente, who predicts food riots during the next few years - foresee a brief "recovery" followed by a greater disaster.
Right now, the biggest problem is confidence. That may well be assuaged in the shorter term.
But due to all these massive debts - spending on a level never seen in human history - several economic experts see inflation as WAY too much money competes for relatively few goods and services (as we are now producing less). They see interest rates shooting up. And they see the dollar devaluing by upwards of 90%.
You look back at the Great Depression, and there was actually a brief period (several months) where it looked like things were getting better - and then they went off the cliff.
Who said it was?
But it is probably the best measurment we've got - and the "two trillion dollars in wealth gone to money heaven" line you cite came from a financial expert on CNBC.
And given Internet time the several months can actually be several days. And if the stock market can rally based on 1.00 Citi stock internal note with no factual bases the market is getting prime for the last leg down.
CBS News is absolutely pathetic. The DOW as around 9650 on Election Day in November and closer to 8000 on Inaguration.
Imagine that: virtually a full third of our economy is just gone now. Well over two trillion dollars in American wealth has now gone to money heaven.
I guess you got me there.
You’re right in the absolute sense: we haven’t lost a “full third” of the economy in the objective sense. We’ve certainly lost a significant chunk of it, but not even close (yet!) to that degree. I should have used the term “market” or “market value” instead, to be more precise.
Good photoshops!!!
That graph brought back some memories of my own financial “moves.”
I sold nearly all my stocks in mid-September when Obama took a 6+ point lead. I figured I would be glad I did if Obama won, and only lose a few hundred in fees if McCain won.
Talked my parents into transferring out of the stock market, too (although my dad insisted on keeping the best performers).
Best damn move I ever made in my life.
And I doubt very much I’ll get back into the market until Republicans at least are in control of either the House or the Senate.
Oh, like I would trust greedy CEO’s opinions......pick your pockets they all are.....there is an end awaiting them and it will be called eternal justice.
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