Bojendyk

I believe I put fiscal conservatives in quotes. It's a reference to the so-called "fiscal conservatives" who charged up enormous debts in recent years. The quotes denote irony. "Fiscal conservatives" do not equal fiscal conservatives.

I was also referring to the lame-brained reasoning that IntheNet was giving for market swings, as if the Dow dipped today in response to Obama's speech last night and not in response to today's news regarding continuing declines in home sales and resale prices, Nortel's announced layoffs, news regarding the stress tests, etc. Yes, the market has reacted to pieces of government news and to TARP votes, etc., but today's movements have nothing to do with Obama's speech. This is the same kind of idiocy behind Hugh Hewitt's reasoning last year that the Dow dropped 200 points in response to Mitt Romney's decision to withdraw from the race.

Or how about those fringe-dwellers who insist that the market started dropping on January 20th in response to Obama's win. Not only is that silly in the extreme (gee, I wonder if there could possibly be any other factors that have affected the markets), but it also requires one to believe that markets aren't efficient--that is, that they hadn't already priced "the Obama effect."

But what do I know? I'm not one of those enlightened people who wants to return to the gold standard and the glory days of the 19th century, when recessions were twice as frequent and twice as long.

 

Nothing lame-brained in admitting that every time the idiot speaks the Stock Market drops! He's speaking right now from White House and the Stock Market nosedived! The brief rally that the market achieved for the day was ruined by Obama! The guy is a walking financial disaster! Since his election the market has dropped more than 2,000 points and millions of Americans 401K plans have been ruined. His Treasury boy wonder is also caustic to the market... You can't blame this crap on the former president anymore... about time you guys admitted this Chicago idiot is hazardous to capitalism.

 

IntheNet, if you ever decide to open a financial services company, I'm going to start shorting your stock on the day of your IPO.

 

Without a doubt many things go into to market swings, but to pretend this market isn’t shorting “hope ‘n change” belies reality. Investors are scared and looking for reassurance and aren’t finding it in the words coming out of the White House. I think the market thought the Obama administration was going to hit the ground running with a solid plan to get the credit markets going again… instead it got vague promises that there’s going to be a plan. The stimulus bill was a dud and the fact Obama spent a lot of time pushing doom and gloom to get it passed didn’t help. There’s talk of nationalizing the banks, and last nights speech was long on promise, short on detail. The markets will continue to flounder as long as there is a feeling the administration is flying by the seat of their pants.

And one more thing, I don’t want to hear another liberal complain about Bush deficits as they applaud trillions in deficit spending for years to come.

 

My complaint about the Bush deficits is that he racked them up during a period of economic expansion, and congress (including the Democrats) helped him do so. The combination of cheap money, slashed taxes, and out-of-control spending was reckless in the extreme.

As far as Obama's deficits--and recessionary deficits in general--go, the important comparison is a comparison we can't actually make: how big will the stimulus-related deficit be relative to the size of the deficit had there been no stimulus package?

 

Bush is a fiscal conservative compared to Mr. $36 Billion* A Day!

* Obama has been in office 32 days and spent more than 36 billion a day since he took office, more than Bush's seven years on the war...

 

Of course, the market DID drop after Tim Geithner unveiled his "non-plan" to deal with the banks.

Look, deficits in and of themselves are neither good nor bad. It's WHY you have them, and how big they are relative to the economy, that counts, not WHEN you have them or don't have them.

And what they do.

There is nothing wrong with a "stimulus package" that stimulates. But this one won't do much to stimulate. It is a fiscal train wreck.

 

This I agree with. There was much anticipation related to Geitner's plan and the dud that he dropped in congress did not give investors confidence. It wasn't necessarily "bad" it just left us with uncertainty. Any negative effect from this is most certainly short term. Once treasury starts working its actual plan related to banks, then the markets will go up or down based on the substance and whether people believe that the plan will have a positive effect.