Queasy Capitalists
I'll confess my biases here: If John McCain or Mitt Romney were inaugurated yesterday, accompanied by a 300 point drop in the Dow, I'd have snorted about how the markets have no faith in the new prez.
Instead, the Dow plummeted after Obama delivered a stirring message of renewal to a citizenry that is very optimistic about him, according to the polls -- so I'm a bit testy about how these Wall Street wimps greeted that message of renewal with another sell-off. Have they no ability to stop panicking at last? How much more rescue money, or Prozac, or both, do we need to stuff down their throat before they stop running in circles and screaming?
Well, the market never seems to make much sense, as can be seen by how Apple shares rose today even though the SEC is now poking its nose into its tent.
But after 9/11, it was seen as an act of patriotism for everyone, conservative or liberal, to avoid a rush to the exits once Wall Street re-opened. At some point, isn't there a need to bring that approach back, even just on inauguration day?
To me, the ongoing bleeding, so "confidence-related," is a reminder that too many investors are still driven by short-term speculative greed and not by the concept of prudent investment that is supposed to drive our society.
Rob, I should probably commend you - you might be the first liberal journalist (if that's a fair enough moniker) to even somewhat bring Obama and the Dow into the same discussion.
The stock market has dropped by almost 1700 points (by my calculations) since November 4, from 9625 on the day Obama was elected to 7949 as of earlier today. The slide began, of course, before Election Day, but the continued downward slide suggests that Obama's call for hope is, as you point out, falling on deaf ears on Wall Street. Why is this Wall Street's fault and not Obama's?
Not everyone is enthusiastic about these bailouts; not everyone thinks the economy will turn around as a result. I don't. Companies are bracing themselves for hard times (including my own). The unemployment rate is increasing at an increasing rate. Obama says that only government can solve the problem - that sort of statement scares a lot of people, myself included.
September 11 produced a "rally 'round the flag" phenomenon that is not uncommon consequent to international incidents and other sudden crises. Unfortunately, economic crises fail to produce the same result. What happened after October 29, 1929? Nothing, from what I can recall. It took a world war to put an end to the Depression.
Government caused the Great Depression (see Smoot-Hawley, for instance) and Government prolonged it. Until we get a president that understands that Government is the problem and not the solution, I'm afraid (i.e., scared) that this thing won't turn around anytime soon.