Last night at McDonald's (we were killing time before our Ash Wednesday Service), Jamie and I ran into a friend who wanted to talk stocks w/Jamie. Well, he really wanted Jamie to tell him that his broker is an idiot and that BOA stock is a good buy right now, but Jamie wouldn't tell him that! Jamie instead said that he is now of the opinion that President Obama and the Dems in Congress are deliberately manipulating the market in a downward spiral in order to create economic panic and thereby make their social programs (nationalized health care, for example) and big government appealing to the masses. After all, the last time the country was in a depression was when era of big government got started under the New Deal.
I have a hard time disagreeing with Jamie here. Every single time the President speaks, the market tanks. If I were President and the market tanked every time I opened my mouth, I'd shut the hell up. Our President either (1) doesn't see that glaringly obvious correlation, or (2) he doesn't care. He seems to be a smart enough man, so my money is on #2. Common sense dictates that if the man cared about my 401K becoming a 201K, he'd stop making the market go down.
My dad called today in a kerfluffle because of some tax that is going to increase energy prices. Since the energy costs will be passed on to the consumer, the government is going to give up to $800 a year to poor families to cover that increased cost. Now, I'm all about charitable giving when people decide to give. I'm a sucker for charitable giving (Jamie would wholeheartedly agree with that, I ususally only own up to it at tax time when I have to give him my reciepts for the year and endure a harsh lecture about how much more we could give in the future if I'd stop spending it all now). What I do not like is when the government decides to take away my choices re: charitable giving by increasing my taxes to increase their spending on wasteful government programs. Moreover, Obama's current economic plans penalize success and take away incentives to do well. Why should I earn more than 249K a year when the government is going to take an ever increasing chunk of that income to support other Americans? The private sector is more effective than government. Capitalism works. It isn't perfect, but it generally rewards hard work, grit and determination. Look at the United States in the 80s under Reagan. Compare that with the Soviet Union. The US (a capitalist society) thrived. The USSR (a socialist state) collapsed. Even FDR's treasury secretary conceded that the New Deal was an enormous failure. Yet we have a democratic Congress and President currently pushing through a budget with a record deficit in the TRILLIONS to support more big government/socialist programs.
I think Congress and the President need a history lesson. And I think the country needs a new Ronald Reagan.
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