Within a couple of minutes, in the same press conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, President Obama said:
"What you’re now seeing is, profit and earning ratios are starting to get to the point where buying stocks is a potentially good deal if you’ve got a long term perspective on it."
And followed it up with:
“What I’m looking at is not the day-to-day gyrations of the stock market, but the long-term ability for the United States and the entire world economy to regain its footing. And, you know, the stock market is sort of like a tracking poll in politics. It bobs up and down day to day, and if you spend all your time worrying about that, then you’re probably going to get the long-term strategy wrong.”
In his first comment, Obama spoke as if he had some inside knowledge and wanted to convey it. It was almost as if he was saying, “OK, I’ve done what I need to do and things will settle from here.”
In his second statement, Obama dispelled the notion that he has inside knowledge, or if he had, ever cared about the stock market value. “I don’t care what happens to the stock market, I”m moving forward, I know best,” was the implied statement.
Is it possible for Obama to utter the two statements and be consistent? Can he reconcile an attitude for the complete disregard of the major indexes and a bullish call for stocks? Yes he can!
I think we can safely put aside the nonsensical talk that occurred around Obama’s election, that speculated, perhaps hoped, that he would “govern from the center.” There is no doubt that Obama is implementing what previous to November of 2008, would have been completely unthinkable. Take overs of the major banking institutions and the auto industry, increasing debt by multiple trillions and by virtue of a “stimulus bill” and his budget, inserting government involvement deeper and wider than ever before seen. Obama is from far, far away Leftville and is intent on reshaping America to reflect his view of what America as Leftville, should look like.
The next question than is “What does Leftville look like?” Here again, we can quit with any nonsense of what some want Obama to say and go directly to his words. In nearly every major speech since his election, Obama has included the phrase “Shared sacrifice.” “Shared sacrifice” in the New Obama Dictionary, means that all should be equally dependent upon the government. The problem that Obama has is that in the 234+ years of the country, that hasn’t been the plan. The result is that there is a large class of folks who have accumulated levels of wealth that allow them not to be dependent on the government. When I say “wealth,” I don not mean people with millions of dollars. I’m referring to people who have saved, paid their bills on time and when they retire, will be able to do so not taking world tours each year but by continuing to pay their bills and perhaps, if they’re lucky, leave a small monetary remembrance to their heirs. At one time these people were considered “successful” but no more. With a desire for “shared sacrifice,” Obama needs to find a way to quickly remove the means that the “successful” have that allows them to be independent of the government. How to do it.
Here again, Obama and the folks around him have given us his exact plan. In the words of Rahm Emanuel, “never allow a crisis to go to waste.” Obama is continuing to exacerbate and fan a crisis to acheive his vision. Let’s go back and look at his comments from today in reverse order:
“What I’m looking at is not the day-to-day gyrations of the stock market, but the long-term ability for the United States and the entire world economy to regain its footing. And, you know, the stock market is sort of like a tracking poll in politics. It bobs up and down day to day, and if you spend all your time worrying about that, then you’re probably going to get the long-term strategy wrong.”
Of course he’s looking at the stock market. Does anyone really believe that there is a day of 3%, 4% or greater drops in the market that he and his staff are not aware of it? Baloney! The only truth in Obama’s statement is that if he worried about it, he would get his long term strategy wrong. If your strategy is to erase wealth from a broad section of the population than you purposely ignore the market. You also sow fear, confusion and mistrust so that the market is unable to find footing. Do this long enough and you will erase huge amounts of 401Ks and other investments.
OK, so if you’re intent on erasing wealth why would you come out and tell people:
"What you’re now seeing is, profit and earning ratios are starting to get to the point where buying stocks is a potentially good deal if you’ve got a long term perspective on it."
Simple. At the end of December, 74% of the markets value was sitting on the sidelines in cash. I would guess that that number has increased as the market as continued to drop. It’s hard to quickly erase wealth in the stock market if the money isn’t in the stock market. How do you fix that? As President you tell people that it’s OK to get back in the market. You do that while continuing to push forward with all the policies and plans that market has told you have no value.
Obama is the master of saying one thing and acting in a manner that is completely contrary. Remember, this is the man who said he agreed with the Supreme Court’s decision on DC handguns and is now trying to move gun restriction legislation forward. This is the man who said he was not supportive of late term abortions but has nominated the person singularly responsible for keeping “Tiller the Killer” in business. Believing Obama’s words without any evidence of action supporting those words is naive and ignorant.
The only thing we can say about Obama is that while his lips may be saying “yes” his actions almost always, will say something else.
