So if Obama is Responsible for the Tanking of the DOW….
A familiar refrain from the wingnuts over the last month was that the stock market was tanking because it was not liking what it was hearing from President Obama. So if we go by that logic, I now expect them to immediately and without qualification praise President Obama for encouraging today’s nearly 400 point gain in the DOW. If conservatives are consistent, of course they will do that.
But I won’t hold my breath. Because they won’t. Nor should they, because their original premise is wrong to begin with, so if they praise President Obama now, they would be wrong yet again. But then again, they being wrong would be consistent. But I digress.
Today’s surge in the market was credited to Citibank showing a profit, which reveals the real reason for the market tanking: concern over stability of banks. Indeed, as the market dropped over the last weeks, shares of bank stocks reached $1 a share levels, and some became penny stocks.
Now you could say investors were leaving the market in droves prior to today because they did not like President Obama’s plans for stabilizing banks. But if they are showing confidence today because Citibank, over a third of which is now controlled by the federal government, is showing a profit, then that implies approval of the Administration’s actions in stabilizing Citibank to the point where it can show a profit.
It is a messy game when you try to pin credit or blame on a President based on the rise and fall of the stock market. In the end, the market is a confidence game, pure and simple. And against the Chinese water torture of bad news day after day concerning banks and unemployment figures, it was only natural for confidence to be shaken and for the market to fall. And the market is still mercurial, since today’s gains can be lost tomorrow if Bank of America posts losses tomorrow. President Obama and his team have the right idea: to not concentrate on the day to day short term of market gains and losses, and to focus on long term plans to stimulate and save the economy.
Tags: Economy, President Obama, Stock Market
I don’t think Republicans are afraid of being wrong or looking dumb. After all that guy that wrote Dow 36,000 is walking around criticizing Obama’s economic plan, and even advised John McCain in his presidential bid. (Yet one more reason to thank our lucky stars that McCain lost).
Indeed, as Jon Stewart so deftly pointed out, all these market geniuses predicted that the economy would be fine, and we all should invest in Bear Stearns and Lehmans.
As of 2006, the smallest percentage of national wealth was going to wages since 1929, while the percentage of wealth realized in corporate profit was at it`s highest in 65 years. I start with that basic root cause and play the blame game from there, Globilization, the maldistribution of wealth, the top 1% have gotten 7% rich, while the rest have gotten &5 poorer and on and on.
The systems out of balance, consumer balance sheets are not healthy. Debt ratios are too high. All 1929 repeats that economists have been warning about for 2 decades.
The above is much too long to fit on a bumper sticker, But it`s all Obama`s fault fits nicely.
I remember the Dow started tanking back in 2007, …..you know when bush was in the white house.
It’s amazing how much 2007/2008 numbers looked like 1929 numbers like household debt and wealth distribution.