Obama’s rousing economy speech
A few days ago President Obama delivered his vision of the 2012 budget. It was less than well received:
The Republicans, as expected, weren’t too pleased with it either.
Here it is if you want to watch it before discussing any further:
Now, the main gripe was, as per the norm with Obama, it had no real specifics. He’s going to cut trillions, balance the budget, and tax the rich. No one will lose their job, no one will lose any benefits. Everyone will be happy.
Now, there’s politics as people are used to it. It’s partisan, it’s opinionated. I could quote thousands of opinions real easy from people who supported it, and people who didn’t. That’s easy. It’s also boring and redundant.
Then, there’s the real world reactions.
NASDAQ:
| Date | Open | High | Low | Close |
| 4/13/2011 | 2762.69 | 2772.05 | 2744.85 | 2761.52 |
| 4/14/2011 | 2743.12 | 2762.18 | 2733.68 | 2760.22 |
| 4/15/2011 | 2752.87 | 2769.29 | 2743.75 | 2764.65 |
| 4/18/2011 | 2731.22 | 2737.46 | 2706.5 | 2735.38 |
Down.
S&P:
| Date | Open | High | Low | Close |
| 4/18/2011 | 1313.35 | 1313.35 | 1294.7 | 1305.14 |
| 4/15/2011 | 1314.54 | 1322.88 | 1313.68 | 1319.68 |
| 4/14/2011 | 1311.13 | 1316.79 | 1302.42 | 1314.52 |
| 4/13/2011 | 1314.03 | 1321.35 | 1309.19 | 1314.41 |
Down.
Dow Jones:
| Date | Open | High | Low | Close |
| 4/13/2011 | 12263.73 | 12372.94 | 12203.63 | 12270.99 |
| 4/14/2011 | 12270.24 | 12332.71 | 12137.98 | 12285.15 |
| 4/15/2011 | 12285.45 | 12402.61 | 12238.34 | 12341.83 |
| 4/18/2011 | 12339.71 | 12339.79 | 12093.89 | 12201.59 |
Down.
But the real problem happened last night.
‘AAA/A-1+’ Rating On United States of America Affirmed; Outlook Revised To Negative
Specifically:
- Because the U.S. has, relative to its ‘AAA’ peers, what we consider to be very large budget deficits and rising government indebtedness and the path to addressing these is not clear to us, we have revised our outlook on the long-term rating to negative from stable.
- We believe there is a material risk that U.S. policymakers might not reach an agreement on how to address medium- and long-term budgetary challenges by 2013; if an agreement is not reached and meaningful implementation is not begun by then, this would in our view render the U.S. fiscal profile meaningfully weaker than that of peer ‘AAA’ sovereigns.
To put this into perspective, Standard and Poor’s started rating the United States in 1941. Since that time, the US government has maintained S&P’s highest rating. Until yesterday.
Their problem with the next two years is, believe this or not, they have no idea what Obama’s plan is to deal with the exploding debt.
Can you imagine that?
Folks, this is
All that money we expect China and the Middle East to loan to the US government basically with no questions asked, that’s what this affects. It’s saying we’re a little less safe than a LOT of other countries. That’s bad folks. Real bad.
Obama needs, just for once, to be specific. He needs to grow some nads and be the President. Just for once. His penchant for offering flowery generics and liberal talking points has got to stop. He’s got to man-up and tell S&P and the world exactly how he’s going to make this country safe and prosperous again.
