The Stock Market Does Not Like What President Obama Is Doing

It has plummeted in the last two months. This article answers the question, what is new during that time period?

What is new is the unveiling of Mr. Obama's agenda and his approach to governance. Every new President has a finite stock of capital -- financial and political -- to deploy, and amid recession Mr. Obama has more than most. But one negative revelation has been the way he has chosen to spend his scarce resources on income transfers rather than growth promotion. Most of his "stimulus" spending was devoted to social programs, rather than public works, and nearly all of the tax cuts were devoted to income maintenance rather than to improving incentives to work or invest.

Yes, the article appears in the Wall Street Journal, and to some people that means it isn't worth reading. The arguments require a response nonetheless. I think the White House is making inexplicable decisions. Instead of targeting certain aspects of the economy that need help, the President is letting the more liberal people in Congress act like kids in a candy store with Mom and Dad's credit card.

Here's a graph (courtesy of Instapundit) that shows what the market has done since the "stimulus" bill passed:

This blog (not mine) links to some market analysis. Here's a graph that shows how the market has reacted since the "stimulus" was passed:



I think the market is right to be nervous. We should all be very worried about whether President Obama and his team have any idea about what to do.