Before I go any further, let me point out that what I’m going to say isn’t just my personal opinion: it has the backing of 77% of investors, who correctly view President Barack Obama as “anti-business.”
From Bloomberg:
Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) — U.S. investors overwhelmingly see President Barack Obama as anti-business and question his ability to manage a financial crisis, according to a Bloomberg survey.
The global quarterly poll of investors and analysts who are Bloomberg subscribers finds that 77 percent of U.S. respondents believe Obama is too anti-business and four-out-of-five are only somewhat confident or not confident of his ability to handle a financial emergency.
The poll also finds a decline in Obama’s overall favorability rating one year after taking office. He is viewed favorably by 27 percent of U.S. investors. In an October poll, 32 percent in the U.S. held a positive impression.
“Investors no longer feel they can trust their instincts to take risks,” said poll respondent David Young, a managing director for a broker dealer in New York. Young cited Obama’s efforts to trim bonuses and earnings, make health care his top priority over jobs and plans to tax “the rich or advantaged.”
So I’m not just some isolated nutjob. Rather, Barack Obama is now the isolated nutjob.
President Obama demands that banks lend more money even as he massively over-regulates them, demonizes them, and undermines their ability to make any profit whatsoever from any loans they actually do make.
People want to invest and make money, no matter who is president, and no matter which party controls the government. Investors aren’t ideologues, but opportunists. Markets intend to improve on their own if they are just left alone, because individuals start making personal decisions with their own investments, with the net effect usually balancing out the big picture.
FDR wouldn’t or couldn’t allow the market to recover on its own; so he imposed on bureaucratic solution after another — and the economy remained in the Great Depression seven years longer than it would have if he hadn’t done anything at all.
And Barack Obama cannot leave well enough alone, either. At his core, he is an elitist bureaucrat who truly believes he knows better than everyone else combined. He believes he can push the buttons and pull the levers of market forces and human lives and run everything from the top. He rewards losers by punishing winners as he tries to impose his warped philosophy of redistributionist “fairness” on the economy. He will fail, and the country will fail along with him until he is gone.
From the AP via the Star Tribune:
Stocks set to continue sell-off after Obama’s new bank overhaul plans spook the market
By STEPHEN BERNARD , Associated Press
Last update: January 22, 2010 – 7:19 AMNEW YORK – Stocks are set to extend their slide Friday, following the worst two-day stretch the market has seen since June.
Stock futures fell as better than expected earnings from General Electric and Google failed to inspire traders.
President Barack Obama spooked the market Thursday, after asking Congress for limits on how large big banks can be and to end some of the risky trading large financial companies have used in recent quarters to boost profits.
The market could be re-entering a period of uncertainty that defined the financial crisis and sent it cratering nearly a year ago before its 10-month rally.
Overseas, Asian markets overnight followed the U.S. sharply lower. European markets are also falling.
Not even the latest batch of upbeat earnings reports from major companies was able to provide some support for investors looking to limit the recent damage.
General Electric Co. reported fourth-quarter profit that beat analyst expectations. The conglomerate also said it is seeing an increase in orders and a growing backlog for products and services, sure signs that the economy is starting to improve.
Internet giant Google Inc. also provided an upbeat sign for the economy, posting robust fourth-quarter earnings that easily topped analyst estimates. The results were driven by a pickup in Internet advertising, which could be a sign companies are feeling more confident the economy will recovery and opting to spend more to draw in customers.
Credit card lender American Express Co. also beat expectations after it set aside less money for defaulting loans. Default and delinquency rates both fell from the previous quarter, another encouraging sign for the economy.
High loan losses have plagued the financial sector and any declines in defaults would be a welcome sign that the consumer is starting to recover.
Ahead of the opening bell, Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 39, or 0.4 percent, to 10,299. Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures declined 3.20, or 0.3 percent, to 1,107.90, while Nasdaq 100 index futures dropped 1.75, or 0.1 percent, to 1,839.25.
The Dow is trying to bounce back after losing 213 points Thursday and 336 points, or 3.1 percent, during the past two trading sessions. The losses have erased all the early gains seen in 2010.
Large financial firms, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. all plummeted Thursday. The three big banks, which have prominent consumer and investment banking operations, would likely be the hardest hit by Obama’s new regulations. Shares of each all declined more than 5 percent.
Meanwhile, bond prices dipped Friday morning. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.60 percent from 3.59 percent late Thursday.
The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices declined.
Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 2.6 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 declined 1.2 percent, Germany’s DAX index fell 1.1 percent, and France’s CAC-40 dropped 1 percent.
No president and no Congress can make the economy improve. All either can do is allow the markets to have an opportunity to improve on their own by creating an atmosphere that is friendly to the small businesses that create jobs and drive the economy.
But neither Obama nor the Democrats in Congress are willing to do that.
Which is why we’re going to just keep limping along until they are gone.
Start Thinking Right 