Obama Says to Buy Stocks
March 6th, 2009Via: Automatic Earth:
President Obama must be starting to sweat, maybe hyperventilate and perhaps even panic. In a move that is prone to kill a political career if it turns out wrong (and it will), he suggested today that this may be a good time for Americans to buy stocks. Now, I don’t care if he really thinks that or not, the fact remains that it’s a highly risky and volatile thing for a politician to say. It feels like he’s moving ever closer into W territory, it sounds like something that Bush 43 would have said, like when 8 years ago he urged Americans to go out and buy a home. Where’s the difference?
President Obama also insisted that he’s convinced the economy will rebound. And while there will of course be some kind of bounce somewhere down the road, no matter how small, what exactly will be the good that comes from it when it happens with the Dow at 1000? I know, that’s probably not what the president thinks. Or hopes for.
I’m thinking that it’s starting to feel like some sort of contortionist act. Looking at the numbers of the day, I see one more instance of a jaw-dropping plunge in home sales, this time in pending sales of existing houses. Whether it’s new or existing real estate, pending or actual sales, all the numbers keep on going down at Olympic speed. Where would that rebound come from, Mr. President? Prices have much more to fall still, sir, or don’t you know that?
Wait, let me put it another way. Who would you recommend buys the stocks? The millions losing their homes? The even bigger numbers losing their jobs? Maybe the tens of millions who’ve seen their pensions lose 40% in one single year should try to make up for these losses with one more brave bet?
And what would you advice they buy? What stocks are cheap, where are the potential gains to be made? Would you want to tell Americans to buy the stock of the biggest losers (in more than one sense), the AIG’s and CIti’s of the world, the companies that you have now transferred trillions of dollars to that belonged to the same Americans in the first place that you now suggest buy the shares?
How about shares in GM and Ford, who today announced sales that are down 53% and 48%, respectively, numbers that ensure unemployment for millions of additional Americans, regardless of future ingestion of government billions? You want the men and women who just lost their jobs, and likely much of their pensions, to go out and buy shares in their former employers? Is that what you want? Am I the only one around here who thinks of terms like ‘cynical’ and ‘perverted’ when I think this over? How dare you sir, how dare you? Have you no shame?
How dare you abuse the trust your voters have put in you to lure them into at best highly insecure investments with what little they have left, while at the same moment your 2nd hand finance salesmen Tim Geithner and Ben Bernanke testify in Congress that the latest $700 billion banking system ‘rescue’ will not be -nearly- enough? We all know you will need trillions more for your policies in the near future. We know that because your minions don’t even try to hide it anymore in public.
What goes through your mind if and when an impoverished old lady who wants so desperately ‘to believe’ that she donated $100 to your campaign even if that meant she’d eat only oatmeal for weeks, follows your advice and buys GM, Citi and AIG shares with her last remaining savings, if Congress refuses yet another, and undoubtedly bigger, round of Wall Street hand-outs? That would wipe out the old lady’s savings, wouldn’t it, Mr. President? And if it’s not Congress, you yourself may well have to take that decision, because the bleeding will not stop..
You’ve been gambling heavily with your people’s money for 6 weeks now, and that’s no little feat in my eyes. Gambling with their trust, however, is a whole other ball game.
Research Credit: Idleworm
Suggested? I can’t find any exact Obama quote along those lines. All I can find is that he said that the stock market fluctuates and those who pay attention to the fluctuations miss out on long term strategies. That’s ambiguous. I don’t see how that can mean he says we should buy. There was no link to an Obama quote in this blog post.
I googlenewsed Obama and stock and all I got were the usual corporate press scare Obama scapegoat stories.
It’s obvious that they’re trying to hang the Bush administration mess on Obama.
It’s equally obvious that Obama is not Jesus and can’t clean up the giant shit pile that was placed at his feet.
Here you go:
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/obama/2009/03/04/obama-says-buy-stocks-now-good-deals-there-for-long-term-investors.html
“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,” Obama said Tuesday.
Thanks.
Well, if the stocks you invest in don’t go to zero, and the companies they are tied to weather the storm, or are propped up by the government, then I suppose he has a point.
Of course, he doesn’t say which stocks to buy.
I think it would be a matter of determining which companies are politically connected enough to weather the storm; which companies have been beat up on unfairly, etc.
In any case, as President, he can’t very well say: “This country is fucked!!! Run for your lives!!!”
That’s your job.
: )
Nope, his job is to keep the maniac fascist regime rumbling along, so to do that, he must continue to feed the collective delusion that sustains it by pretending everything will eventually return to normal.
I personally think it will be a good time to invest in 1-2 years, provided we haven’t descended into mob rule or martial law.