Stock market gets Obama-ed again on Tuesday

On Tuesday, the stock markets put in another dismal performance, with all major indices closing down on the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 6726, down 37 points, about 20 points above its low and 125 points below its mid-day high. And immediately after the bell, futures are trading substantially lower, as if the Dow were down another 25 points or so.  The market closed at levels last seen in October, 1996.

Technology stocks were slightly stronger, with the Nasdaq down only two points, but also much closer to its daily low than high.

One thing to keep in mind is that financial stocks are mostly so inexpensive now that changes in their prices have less impact on the averages (other than the equally-weighted DJIA) than they used to. In other words, the recent destruction in the market represents a lot more than just sell-offs in banks, investment banks, etc.

And now Barack Obama, who has essentially never been an investor, is putting in his two cents.

It’s stunning to hear Obama talk about the market’s “fits and starts”, and its “bobbing up and down”, given that it’s basically been a one-way market for all of 2009, with far more and far larger down days than up days.

Obama is just proving that he doesn’t have the slightest clue about how finance really works, nor interest in learning…which explains a lot about his ability to so casually support policies which are frontal assaults on already weak markets and a reeling economy.

Here’s Don Boudreaux’s reaction:

Editor, Foxnews.com

Dear Editor:

President Obama today offered investment advice, declaring that “What you’re now seeing is a profit and earnings ratios get to the point that buying stocks is a good thing if you have a long-term perspective on it” (“Obama: It’s a Good Time to Buy Stocks,” March 3).

Having no expertise at investing, Mr. Obama’s must believe that living in the White House imbues him with magical powers of insight. Persons much more experienced at investing than Mr. Obama are mostly selling rather than buying – a fact that suggests that Mr. Obama’s arrogance overwhelms his abilities. What’s next? Will he offer chef Mario Batali tips on making soufflés? Instruct Bruce Springsteen on writing music? Advise Joe Torre on the intricacies of baseball?

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030

As I write this, futures have dropped further from the above paragraph. If the market were still open, it would now be at its low for the day.

Have Obama and Geither not noticed that every time they put forward a policy or explain one (as Geither tried to do today with the budget), Americans lose billions of dollars?

Have liberals not noticed that it’s not just evil capitalists who are seeing their life savings, their hopes and dreams for retirement, their rainy-day nest eggs, wiped out?

At what point will the liberal media stop covering for the man behind the curtain, the man who so many think has magical powers but who in reality is a charlatan. At least the Wizard was basically harmless…