Wall Street Is Short Barack Obama 37 comments
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On Wall Street, the Barack Obama honeymoon has already finished before it even started. The Dow Jones Industrial Average short term high of 9625 was established on November 4, 2008 – Election Day. The stock market has collapsed towards 6800 through spirit-breaking headlines of Citigroup’s (C) imminent collapse, foreclosures, and yet another round of billions of dollars in bailout money for American International Group (AIG). Still, we already knew that.
Partisan wrangling and the New Administration’s failure to communicate have highlighted the downdraft. The surreal happenings are made ever more cryptic by a glad handling media and financial regime reluctant to outwardly present anything short of otherworldly praise for Barack Obama's "Change" at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The players have been smiling on camera, while liquidating behind the scenes – in typical Wall Street fashion.
A recent Business Week poll of anonymous voters indicates that 42% of respondents blame Obama for mismanagement of the economy. Personally, I would offer that the economy has not been mismanaged; it is the mismanaged expectations that were allowed to dominate reality. Objectively, the first 100 days have been a public relations fiasco that nobody has the audacious gall to admit.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner should have been the very first appointment to the cabinet. While Bill and Hillary Clinton were being appeased with a Secretary of State parting gift – the Dow Jones Industrial Average was crumbling by 1500 points during the two weeks that we were operating in fiscal policy limbo. Traders were held hostage by a lame duck loose cannon Hank Paulson until this Invisible Man Treasury Secretary emerged from behind the veil.
The stock market stabilized through Inauguration Day on the strength of Geithner’s alleged financial wizardry and the fawn fest reserved for our latest savior, Barack Obama. Our President’s bold proclamation of "Change" and his complete refusal to steal his Treasury Secretary’s thunder effectively captivated Wall Street. We didn’t know what it was, but whatever it was – it was certain to be big. On February 10, 2009, Timothy Geithner delivered his pitch:
Without credit, economies cannot grow at their potential, and right now, critical parts of our financial system are damaged. Unless we restore the flow of credit, the recession will be deeper.
We already knew that. The smoke and mirrors, dog and pony show degenerated into a fiasco of general rhetoric, tired clichés, and no details. The PR debacle hammered stocks and must be acknowledged as the most significant gaffe of the new Obama Administration.
The happenings opened up the controlling Democratic Party to attack on all flanks. Moderates have broken rank, House Republicans ripped the stimulus package en masse, Rick Santelli is threatening to dump monitors into Lake Michigan, and Rush Limbaugh is actually relevant again.
The Wall Street voting bloc is alarmed by the prospect of higher taxes used to finance a populist agenda of alternative energy, housing bailouts to unqualified homeowners, and health care reform. Ironically, blue blood Wall Street rallied around Barack Obama throughout election season. We must speculate that a crushing bear market and real estate bust have destroyed the goodwill of this group. The wealthy have little incentive to bankroll another round of tasty cake pork barrel spending.
Wall Street is voting with its wallet.
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This article has 37 comments:
No way that 54%, or was it 56%, or whatever, of us misjudged the man and his abilities. After all, the only thing he has done so far is to spend us into oblivion and to nominate four individuals, that will stand guard at the most important posts in government, who failed to be able to keep track of their tax obligations and were still ramrodded in. I don't know about ya'll, but I still have great confidence in the man. All I have to do is remember how much experience he has in these matters.
The media management is terrible and is being made worse by the White House directly addressing Cramer and Santelli comments during White House briefings. No way should the administration be doing that.
Obama is very good at running a campaign team when he is the message. he is learning the hard way that delegating responsibility to his employees is fine but he ends up answering for their mis-steps and comments. He has to forge the team before they can really operate on their own. For example, the speech Geithner made should have been vetted and practiced. It was not ready for prime time.
- porkulus bill wasting billions of dollars to buy votes, read it yourselves. But you 'll see insane expenditures to ACORN, unions, mob museums, 9000 earmarks in all
- a multi-year budget, cutting nothing by way of wasteful spending( Obama claims otherwise of course )
- raisning the marginal tax code on the "rich"; you know, those horrible people who start businesses, creat jobs, god I hate them
- but of course, the rich aren't rich because they are dumb, they just won't expand or create businesses, in fact they will lay more peopl e off
- net result is a worse problem, no net increase in tax revenues, and more sheeple beholding to the government
- expanded central government control of more and more industries; if you like the service you get at the US post office, or the DMV, or whatever gov agency you are unlucky enough to have to go to now, you'll love the future
- especially health care. Wow, I'm sure you'll cherish you 5 minutes with the gov doctor. X-rays, MRI's careful investigations?? Please, get serious I have 100 people waiting. Rack 'em and crack 'em. Who in theie right mind will become a doctor in the future?
- With such new services, you won't paying increasing taxes your whole life, will you? Anyway, Big Brother knows how to spend your money way better than you do, its a win-win
online.wsj.com/article...
you left out guys like me who have said enough and have quit producing. there was a rash of small businesses laying off half, a third, a fourth, selling out or just closing their doors beginning nov. 5 in anticipation of higher taxation. i was working because i enjoyed work and i feel it helps everyone if the productive keep producing. i have taken steps over the last 27 years to provide for my own. i started smelling the stench of government then and began to take protective meaasures. my friends and acquantences that are able are starting to move the same way. why produce if it brings punishment. tax market transactions and profits, tax income more, steal capital gains. great stimulus.
let the socialists bleat obahahahamahahaha all they want. i am not paying anymore. subsidise illigitimate babies, broken homes, laziness, ineptness, ineffiency.. you get more. tax the ambitious, the productive, the hard working, you get less.....if our country turns back i will go back to work. if they want socialism i am not paying.
On Mar 06 09:46 AM fireball wrote:
> patio
> you left out guys like me who have said enough and have quit producing.
> there was a rash of small businesses laying off half, a third, a
> fourth, selling out or just closing their doors beginning nov. 5
> in anticipation of higher taxation. i was working because i enjoyed
> work and i feel it helps everyone if the productive keep producing.
> i have taken steps over the last 27 years to provide for my own.
> i started smelling the stench of government then and began to take
> protective meaasures. my friends and acquantences that are able are
> starting to move the same way. why produce if it brings punishment.
> tax market transactions and profits, tax income more, steal capital
> gains. great stimulus.
> let the socialists bleat obahahahamahahaha all they want. i am not
> paying anymore. subsidise illigitimate babies, broken homes, laziness,
> ineptness, ineffiency.. you get more. tax the ambitious, the productive,
> the hard working, you get less.....if our country turns back i will
> go back to work. if they want socialism i am not paying.
They just don't match up. The ban worked before and it should be implemented again. Then the stock market would be more creditble.
If those promises are bad for America, then the majority of voters who chose him have some soul searching to do. They were not hoodwinked. The man was "perfectly clear".
Let's hope the majority did the right thing.
On Mar 06 10:43 AM patio wrote:
> plumstupid, did you choose your handle because moronicsocialistidiot
> was taken?
On Mar 06 10:43 AM patio wrote:
> plumstupid, did you choose your handle because moronicsocialistidiot
> was taken?
On Mar 06 11:11 AM moronicsocialistidiot wrote:
> Who you calling socialist?
"...Do you pine for me - the way I pine for you? Please. Please, say Yes...
No.
You are a ho.
I hear the stories - but I don't believe them. Nope. Not my Green Eyes. Not, Miss Precious. How could my sweet, delicate flower do this to me? How could she treat me..."
...ooooookaaay -- I hope you'll pardon me if I don't seek your investment advice.
On Mar 06 03:34 PM sether wrote:
> attention all fearful, fat, white, petty stock speculating, FOX watching,
> 60-something, arterial sclerotic piggies. You have nothing to fear
> from the new regime of the great unwashed; so long as you take your
> tax hike with a smile, keep your petulant cake-holes shut, and fade
> quietly into political and economic irrelevance. That is your future.
> I enjoy the fact that you will spend the waning years of your life
> gnashing your teeth and crying bitter piggy tears. Squeal piggies,
> squeal louder, SQUEAL.
I beg to differ...STRONGLY. The *lowlights* have been attempts to usher in total Marxism, and the more-than-attempts...t... actuality...of bringing in utterly corrupt, tax-dodging appointees to help run the show!!! Failure to communicate has very little to do with it -- WHAT was communicated is the problem!!! WHAT is being done is the problem.
come take your free lunch. it's free. hope you like lead. come on little piglet. come take your lunch. hope you got a taste for the lean meat of a predater. oops i mean succulent pork. i guess i'll use you for fertilizer. think you'll mix well with manure.
pretty sure i made my gains by my own labor but just for fun let's say i took it from weaklings like you. bleat his name obahahahamahahaha.
usually i like reasonable conversation but there are exceptions. come take your free lunch little piggy. i'm weak and helpless. easy prey for you. come on over. i'll give you exactly what you deserve.
Good humor!
I liked the part about "otherworldly praise" Obama receives from the media and Wall St., while it quietly liquidates. To me, all praise for him must be otherworldly at this point.
Not just due to mismanaged expectations. Hello, most of us are screwed or getting to it thanks to actual ongoing longterm mismanagement of reality. And Obama officially has his own personal bear market in just 5 weeks.
How come someone who lives/breathes government can't find enough qualified hacks for open positions and have policies ready once they're in office? I read Treasury is still minus 50 top positions which leaves Geitner overexposed. I also disagree that he wasn't appointed soon enough. We might be down another 10% if he were.
It's not all about the dog and pony show. And maybe partisanship against Obama has something to do with elevating Summers and backbenching Volcker. And the token Republicans who were to be Commerce Secretary, I forget how many tries there.
I think anybody with real life common sense knows we're in enough trouble that it won't be easy. But, this idea that image is reality has played itself out. If Obama were as klutzy as Gerald Ford but had solutions without such obvious fealty to DC and to banksters a lot of us would have been very relieved and grateful.
For the Love of Money:
onyxinvestments.blogsp...
www.associatedcontent....
Cool...
On Mar 06 01:19 PM raytayzmd wrote:
> ..."...recent Business Week poll of anonymous voters indicates that
> 42% of respondents blame Obama for mismanagement of the economy."...uhhh,
> the guy's been in office hardly a month and they're doing polls on
> how his management?...let's see, if I put you in a rowboat and dropped
> you in the middle of a tsunami, how well do you think you would do?..."The
> Wall Street voting bloc is alarmed by the prospect of higher taxes..."...that's
> where you should have stopped...if all those expenditures you mentioned
> served to enrich Wall Streeters at the expense of Main Street, no
> doubt their roar of approval would be deafening...and WTF is this
> from your website:
>
> "...Do you pine for me - the way I pine for you? Please. Please,
> say Yes...
> No.
> You are a ho.
> I hear the stories - but I don't believe them. Nope. Not my Green
> Eyes. Not, Miss Precious. How could my sweet, delicate flower do
> this to me? How could she treat me..."
>
> ...ooooookaaay -- I hope you'll pardon me if I don't seek your investment
> advice.
On Mar 06 03:58 PM fireball wrote:
> sether
> come take your free lunch. it's free. hope you like lead. come on
> little piglet. come take your lunch. hope you got a taste for the
> lean meat of a predater. oops i mean succulent pork. i guess i'll
> use you for fertilizer. think you'll mix well with manure.
> pretty sure i made my gains by my own labor but just for fun let's
> say i took it from weaklings like you. bleat his name obahahahamahahaha.
>
> usually i like reasonable conversation but there are exceptions.
> come take your free lunch little piggy. i'm weak and helpless. easy
> prey for you. come on over. i'll give you exactly what you deserve.
On Mar 06 01:19 PM raytayzmd wrote:
> ..."...recent Business Week poll of anonymous voters indicates that
> 42% of respondents blame Obama for mismanagement of the economy."...uhhh,
> the guy's been in office hardly a month and they're doing polls on
> how his management?...let's see, if I put you in a rowboat and dropped
> you in the middle of a tsunami, how well do you think you would do?..."The
> Wall Street voting bloc is alarmed by the prospect of higher taxes..."...that's
> where you should have stopped...if all those expenditures you mentioned
> served to enrich Wall Streeters at the expense of Main Street, no
> doubt their roar of approval would be deafening...and WTF is this
> from your website:
>
> "...Do you pine for me - the way I pine for you? Please. Please,
> say Yes...
> No.
> You are a ho.
> I hear the stories - but I don't believe them. Nope. Not my Green
> Eyes. Not, Miss Precious. How could my sweet, delicate flower do
> this to me? How could she treat me..."
>
> ...ooooookaaay -- I hope you'll pardon me if I don't seek your investment
> advice.
How come someone who lives/breathes government can't find enough qualified hacks for open positions and have policies ready once they're in office?
Because the man has never managed so much as a shoe store. How the hell can he be expected to figure this out so quickly? Give him a few years will ya. He doesn't have that much political experience. He just arrived in the Senate recently.
Even an Economics 101 student would realize the momentum that is carrying the market now is the consequence of inaction last fall.
Nothing that Obama and the Democrats have done since the election will even manifest itself untill late this summer at best. ... about when many economists (including Bernake) are looking to see improvement. Too bad Bush took a powder the last six months in office!
No one is trying to pin anything on Obama. This disaster is simply not his fault. The whole point is that he is sounding and behaving like a socialist and that is driving the markets down further. Wake up and pay attention. Blind adulation of anyone is dangerous.