An Obama Victory and the Economy

I want to be on the record a week prior to the election. This election looks like it is going to tilt in favor of Barack Obama and the democrats. It looks like we are simply haggling over how big of a majority the democrats will hold in both houses of the legislature and whether or not pusillanimous, left-wing, ninnies like Al Franken will be swept into office along with Obama.

What I want on the record is....I will bet what is left of my entire portfolio, which is not a very big bet any more, that as soon as Barack Obama is in office, and maybe even right after the election, the tone of the economic news will change, and change dramatically. The tide of economic bad news washing over the working folks in this country will begin to subside and miraculously, the the economy will cease to be the worst since the Hoover administration. We have seen this in the past. Almost immediately after Bill Clinton won election, the economy that at the time was the worst sice the depression according to the press, was suddenly out of recession and the "economy stupid" which propelled Clinton to victory was on the road to recovery. To his credit, and with the help of the republican victories in 1994, Clinton stayed out of the way of the economy and enjoyed a rising economic tide for the vast majority of his administration.

Part of me is looking forward to an Obama victory so the hourly bludgeoning of our economy by the mainstream press can abate. Obama and his buddies are going to get a tremendous head start on getting the economy back on track from the press. Negative stories will fall from the headlines and hopefully the general feeling of economic helplessness will begin to recede. However, my fear, and candidly my expectation, is that an Obama administration along with a big majority in Congress will tax the producers in the country to the point of breaking. There is no way that rational and motivated producers in this economy can stand the barrage of income redistribution that is headed their way.

Let's enjoy the rays of media sunshine after the Obama victory. I suspect that it will be the eye of the hurricane. Once Team Obama unravels the capitalist fabric of this nation, it will take years, maybe generations to repair. Mark those words too.

Global Warming...Life's Little luxury

It is funny how global warming has dropped off the front pages of the paper like the value my of now meager portfolio. It seems to me that if the threat of global warming was killing polar bears as we speak, if we were less than ten years away from irreversible global doom, if the rising tides were going to wash across the streets of Manhattan, then shouldn't the global warming alarm be sounding just as loud when the Dow is at 9,000 as it is when the Dow is at 14,000? The alarmists seem to have been pushed not just below the fold, but off the pages altogether. Maybe global warming isn't quite as bad when people are more worried about the mortgage than the polar caps. Never mind the data that show the oceans actually cooled over the past few years...that never stopped the global alarmists. But the Dow dropping into the tank, now we have something a little more pressing to occupy our time.

I guess when $ 4.00 coffee at Starbuck's is no longer an affordable luxury, global warming isn't either. Maybe Al Gore is too busy trying to figure out to recoup his losses to blab on about his latest weird science. If nothing else I hope he is bawling out Barney Frank and Chris Dodd for being asleep at the switch. I guess he lost more in any given day than I did over the past month. When you have that much at stake, the polar bears are probably better swimmers than we thought.

"The Wealth" versus "Your Wealth" Obama doesn't know the Difference

Whether or not one favors or opposes Barack Obama there are things about the senator that are undeniable. Senator Obama makes very few mistakes on the campaign trail. He chooses his words very carefully, and he means what he says. So when Senator Obama tells a plumber in Ohio that "when we share the wealth everyone is better off" there is no doubt in my mind that he means what he says and believes in his heart that if we share the wealth we will all be better off. The problem with Mr. Obama's statement is that he refers to "the" wealth, as though wealth were a public asset, like federal parks, public waterways, and interstate highways. I guess this view of wealth as a public trust should not come as a surprise when one considers that Barack Obama has never worked in the private sector of our economy, the part that creates wealth. He has always worked in the part of the economy that relies on the wealth created by others. If Obama understood how wealth is created, he would have rephrased his comment to state "when we share your wealth everyone is better off". That would have been an accurate statement to Mr. Plumber from Ohio, but I am pretty sure that is something that Obama does not understand.

If I figured out a way to hack into Warren Buffet's account at Berkshire Hathaway and took $ 100M and gave them to the most destitute in the Richmond area, I would be a thief and should go to jail. However if Barack Obama and his tax and spend pals in congress decide to take 50% more of the money I earn on a monthly basis and give it the most destitute in Richmond, it is called "sharing the wealth". Maybe Obama and his Ivy League friends can explain the difference to me, because I can't see it. Obama meant what he said to that plumber, he just said it in an way that demonstrates his lack of understanding of free market capitalism. He is going to spread the wealth, yours, mine, and that plumber's. If Obama is going to pick my pocket, I wish he at least understood what it was he was really doing.

Liberal Democrats and Celebrities...Dumb and Dumber

Some people can throw a baseball 95 mph. Some people can hit a golf ball 350 years with a high degree of accuracy. Others can run faster than the wind blows. These people's talents result in unequal outcomes in terms of their ability to perform in the professional sports business. As a result people with these talents earn salaries and bonuses that make them among the richest people on Earth. Some people are smart. Some people work very long hours and sacrifice pleasure for the sake of their work. Other people are very effective leaders and motivational communicators. These people are often successful in "the real world". They have jobs and do things better than their competition in the market. These people are called "the rich" by demagoging liberals. For some reason equal opportunity and equal rights to liberal democrats, including the likely next president, means that results in income and wealth should be as close to equal as possible. We should share the wealth. I am at a loss for words when our next president and the rank and file of his party are essentially socialists, who, in an effort to ensure their political power, work tirelessly to take money from those who have earned it and give it to those who have not. Some people are smart. Others are not. There is very little correlation between being one of the smart people and being a member of the US Congress. In fact, many of these people are either dumber than the average dolphin or they are so blinded by ideology and the lust for their own power that they will say anything and do anything, no matter how moronic. Very sad times for the pathetic state of our leadership...or lack of leadership.

It would be funny if it were not so sad that celebrities confirm all that most normal and thoughtful people think of them...that they are self absorbed, shallow stooges who should keep their mouths shut when they are not reading a script, singing a song , or chatting mindlessly in the privacy of their own homes. It is kind of sad when people think you are an imbecile, it is really sad when you prove it every time you open you mouth to comment on topics which you do not have the mental capacity to understand. When we want a celebrity to comment on the root cause of the financial crisis and the viability of the proposed solutions, we will ask...in the mean time, chomp on your tofu, count the shoes in your closet, and ponder the ramifications of next year's hem lines. Leave thinking to people who are equipped to do it.

Barney Frank & Barney Fife - What's the Difference

If anyone has listened to Barney Frank recently and at the same time watched the meltdown of the financial system, one can't help but think that barney Frank is about as effective as a member and now leader of the House Finance Committee as Barney Fife was as deputy sheriff of Maybury. Neither Barney's had the slightest idea how to do their jobs, neither had the gumption to admit their shortcomings. and when times got tough Barney Fife tended to shoot his pistol off in his holster. Barney Frank shoots his mouth off and makes himself look as silly as his alter ego. The biggest difference between these two is tat Barney Fife's incompetence is intentional and makes us laugh. Barney Frank's incompetence is a result of his blind partisanship and makes us poorer. America loved Barney Fife. Americans who understand the financial crisis in America loathe Barney Frank. Frank has earned the nation's ire. He was asleep at the switch as his pet projects Fannie and Freddie crumbled taking the US financial system with them. Frank blames everyone else for his failings. Does anyone wonder why no one respects the US Congress. Barney Frank is leading the move to the bottom of the barrel, and he is the only one in the country too obtuse not see the obvious. What a loser, how can this guy still be in congress, he is a disgrace to us all.

Washington Observations & Suggestions

It looks to me like Barack Obama will be the next president. If I could tell Obama just one thing, it would be to remember that no country has ever taxed its way back to prosperity...never happened never will. My biggest fear is that he will be obligated to the left-wing socialist wing of the democratic party - the folks that hate corporations, that hate profits, that hate people who are successful and who have never held a job that requires business acumen. I am fearful that his obligation to them will force his hand to tax the people who make our economy work, at a time when the economy is in its most fragile state in 75 years. His plans for tax increases will wreck the economy with 100% certainty.

It is amazing, or pathetic, that Barney Frank has red ink all over his blubber-laden body, but according to his self absorbed rants he has no responsibility whatsoever for the financial crisis. It is truly remarkable that the chairman of the house finance committee could be either so irrelevant or so weak that he has had no hand in financial affairs for the past two years. If he did not wear the stench of rotting investment portfolios slaughtered directly or indirectly by the Freddie and Fannie failures, he might have a shred of credibility, but he does, so he doesn't. What a putz. He has no clue his "who me? the other guy did all the bad stuff, I did all the good stuff" attitude is why most of America despises the current members of congress.

I was so disgusted to see that the members house of the representatives were admittedly swayed in the vote for the financial bailout package by the upcoming elections. Huh....maybe they could just vote for what is right, what is best for the country, not what is best for their election chances.

Does anyone in the mainstream media understand that this crisis is not a failure of capitalism, but rather further evidence that central planning from well-intentioned do-gooders? If banks are coerced to lend to people who cannot possibly repay their loans....why is anyone surprised when they don't? Sometimes these liberal elitists who want to appear so so smart, do things that are so so dumb.