It is simply nonsense, as some Republicans claim, that this is a "Barack Obama economy". I can find plenty to fault Obama with; he doubled-down on Afghanistan, he failed to retrench defense spending, he kept key Bush treasury and economists in place, he failed to understand that the GOP is so radicalized that negotiations based on comprise were impossible from the first day in office. The fact is: Obama-- and we-- are sitting on decades of failed economic policy tracking back to Jimmy Carter, straight through Ronald Reagan, Clinton, and the Bush terms.
Of all the message framing, though, the one that holds closest to accuracy is assessing blame to the Tea Party that have pushed the GOP even further to the right, if that were possible. I am part of the discontented, but my anger is with Alan Greenspan, the former Fed chair, and the former Senator Phil Gramm who led the dismantling of bank regulations, and Karl Rove, the architect of the Bush reality-based community including, among such other rhetorical flourishes that helped destroy the economy, "The Ownership Society". Obama, otherwise so articulate, has failed to paint this picture for the American people.
But Barack Obama or not, the end of days for the US equity markets is not at hand.
So long as the Euro zone is more unstable than the US, so long as China has nowhere else to turn but the US dollar, your money is relatively safe. Of course we are all poorer. There are real consequences to your individual net worth from the disastrous course of US democracy. But there are also many Tea Party acolytes who need to look themselves in the face and admit how they are helping radicalize the GOP to no good end. Barack Obama or not, Tea Party or not: Americans and our economy are literally depending on the kindness of strangers. Those hard working Chinese and Indians and Asians who want our standard of living; a standard of living we are unwilling to price according to the revenues it requires.
A few weeks ago, I predicted a 20 percent decline in the Dow if Congress failed to reach an agreement on raising the deficit. Until yesterday's rally, we were in striking distance. We are not out of the woods by any means. The long term threat of China withdrawing its massive support of US debt is not-so-long anymore. Bob Dylan wrote, "It's not dark yet, but it's getting there." That's more or less America's anthem. In 2012, you are going to hear a non-stop bleat from the campaign trail about American exceptionalism. Ask yourself, is a dollar worth today, what it was ten years ago? Or, forty?
4 comments:
"he failed to understand that the GOP is so radicalized that negotiations based on comprise were impossible from the first day in office."
The first day he took office, January 20, 2009, both houses of congress were controlled by his own party, and until last January the White House and both houses of congress were controlled by the same party.
More importantly, Presidents with appointed department heads administer within the executive branch what's appropriated by congress.
Presidents do not appropriate, only elected congresses do.
The 112th Congress was elected last November.
Fiscal irresponsibility and the great run up in profligate deficit federal spending has been made in the four years of the 110th and 111th Congresses (when Democrats just happen to have had majorities in both houses of Congress) and to which the largest ever run up of public debt is attributable. The numbers are there and undeniable.
It is those two congresses during those four years that have been so reckless and irresponsible with deficit spending in multiple trillions that they haven't even done their job and passed a budget since April 2009.
Tying fiscal matters or federal government spending (during any fiscal year appropriated by a congress) to any President who happens to be in the White House during that time is erroneous and is usually misleading no matter what side you're arguing for.
Want to balance the budget? A “keep-it-simple-stupid” solution for resolving our debt crisis…end the Bush tax cuts. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDC8pmfmYc4
Get the DVD Casino Jack. It is about Jack Abramoff and it will explain how a handfull of powerful guys buy the government. It's all about campaign money. Of course, our Supreme Court made it worse by letting big business elect our governments.
this week: market went down, then up, then down, then up ....this is what analysts call a classic 'head and shoulder' movement, meaning the market is going down big time! put on your seatbelts!
Don't tell me I didn't warn you! Get out of equities and go into fixed income.
Post a Comment