That pesky 10,000 mark
A few months or so ago, Obama hit the beach and started delivering his “economy is recovering, but not enough” message. Some think this was in response to the rather catastrophic forecast of the first Tuesday in November. Personally, I do. “It’s the economy, stupid.” Simple message, hard to debate. The message then was that the recovery was so obvious even his critics had to admit it. He wouldn’t say who they were, but you know who they are because they would go home and take credit for the successes. Well, as of today, it’s not being reflected on Wall Street. That’s who Obama blames for all of our problems.
When he gave that speech, the Dow had just topped 10,500. As of today, it’s 9,985. What’s scarier is some finance guys are forecasting 5,000 in less than two years. I won’t rule them out. I’m looking for that “critic” that has to admit that negative growth is an obvious sign of recovery.
In the time he gave that speech, new housing permits have dropped from historic lows. I don’t think anyone in housing construction is quite ready to admit that negative growth is an obvious sign of recorvery either.
In the time since he gave that speech, unemployment has dropped .2%. However, employment has dropped precipitously as well. It’s not that fewer are claiming unemployment benefits because they’re finding jobs, it’s that fewer people are even trying to at this point. I don’t think too many critics will admit that fewer people working is an obvious sign of recovery either.
Quite frankly, the speech he made on May 18, 2010 claiming his critics were going home taking credit for the obvious recovery is just a flat out lie. It looked bad then, it looks much worse now. I’d shout out “You lie!”, but then I’d be called a racist. So, I won’t. I’ll just type it very quietly here.
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