Friday, March 06, 2009
Driving over the cliff vs. hitting ground, Part II
Hub Blog agrees with Dan: David Brooks has written a smart piece that allays some fears, though not all fears, that the Obama team has gone looney left on us. ... Maybe I'm falling for the bi-partisan head fake again. So I think Ronnie's formulation is a permanent must at this point: Trust but verify. ... Hub Blog, in case you haven't guessed, is no fan of Rush, but I'm definitely convinced now that the White House is sinking to his level by taking him on. Howie:
Here's a Grand Argumentative Compromise: Anything below the Dow 7,000 could be theoretically blamed on Obama. The markets were going to fall to about the 7,000 level anyway, IMHO, based on historic norms, Obamanomics or not. Arguments that Obama's responsible for everything since his inauguration -- and the TV boys were making that argument last night -- are simply looney-right nonsense.
Update -- Kevin, who has a cool illustration on what $1 trillion looks like, writes in:
Hub Blog agrees with Dan: David Brooks has written a smart piece that allays some fears, though not all fears, that the Obama team has gone looney left on us. ... Maybe I'm falling for the bi-partisan head fake again. So I think Ronnie's formulation is a permanent must at this point: Trust but verify. ... Hub Blog, in case you haven't guessed, is no fan of Rush, but I'm definitely convinced now that the White House is sinking to his level by taking him on. Howie:
Until two weeks ago, Rush was still on top, but he wasn’t as on top as he used to be, if you know what I mean. Too many afternoons he’d end up babbling about his private jet, or meander on and on about the Pittsburgh Steelers or George Brett.Reader No. 1 reacts to my reaction in the post immediately below:
No wonder Rush’s favorability rating among those under 40 had slid to 11 percent. Everything about him screamed “RICH OLD FART.” He still had his 600 stations, but he was slowly fading into a $30-million-a-year irrelevance.
It certaintly isn't *all* Obama's fault - and Cramer and Limbaugh are human beings, nobody is right all the time - but - markets & business people look into the future, and this and especially this is the feared outcome of the new policy agenda...
Here's a Grand Argumentative Compromise: Anything below the Dow 7,000 could be theoretically blamed on Obama. The markets were going to fall to about the 7,000 level anyway, IMHO, based on historic norms, Obamanomics or not. Arguments that Obama's responsible for everything since his inauguration -- and the TV boys were making that argument last night -- are simply looney-right nonsense.
Update -- Kevin, who has a cool illustration on what $1 trillion looks like, writes in:
I wish I had you as a professor in college, what an easy grader! I might have even finished in four years instead of five. A 'C' for that un-stimulus bill over which he showed zero leadership? Wow. As for the stock market declines...yes, Bush got the ball rolling (downhill), but the decline has accelerated since February when the stimulus bill and the budget were released. His budget is a disaster and the market knows it. Bleeding evil rich bastards dry and raising costs on every citizen and business through a cap and trade scheme in the name of changing the weather is just plain insane. The stock market is voting with its feet. The most telling quote is from a U.S. Chamber of Commerce official in today's WSJ, "The Obama budget did more to help us consolidate and coalesce the business community than anything we could have done. It's opened eyes to the fact that this is about a social welfare transfer system, not about climate."
