Obama signs massive economic stimulus bill

Wednesday 18th February, 07:17 AM JST

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smithinjapan at 11:06 PM JST - 18th February

sailwind: Sorry, forgot to add... it'd also be like saying the bomb isn't what caused the house to be bombed out.
SuperLib at 12:29 AM JST - 19th February

smithinjapan: but you cannot separate him from the current economic crisis.

Actually, quite a few people do separate Bush from the crisis since it's really not relevant to what needs to be done in the here and now. Mostly obsessive types bring him up because they can't stop themselves even if they wanted to.
SuperLib at 12:39 AM JST - 19th February

likeitis: As for increasing consumer spending, that is something that really only the consumers can do. I think that once the disease has run its course, that will happen.

I think the thing that got us into this mess will bail us out: our lust to consume. Hopefully the future version will be more moderate, but in the end we like buying stuff and after a long enough time people will start buying again.
TexasAggie at 02:09 AM JST - 19th February

The day after the election, the DOW drops.

The day of the inauguration, the DOW drops.

The first time Obama signs any bill related to the economy, the DOW drops.

Anyone here noticing a trend?
Good_Jorb at 02:25 AM JST - 19th February

Anyone here noticing a trend?

The DOW Jones has essentially been going down since May 2008. A noticable trend is the DOW keeps going down even though both Bush and Obama have tried stimulus packages. It seems bipartisan politics continues to dumb down the masses, blaming/relying on politicians is just a way of avioding real problems.
yabits at 02:57 AM JST - 19th February

Anyone here noticing a trend?

Yes, anytime the Dow drops it's followed by a flurry of wrong-headed statements from those who want to shift responsibility away from Republicans and onto Democrats.

If Obama is to be blamed for the most recent drops in stocks, why then can't he be praised for the terrific bargains that these current stock prices represent? When the people who wisely invest in the many solid, quality companies out there are selling for 20% or greater gains a year from now, will people praise Obama? I don't think so, nor do I think they should.

The smart folks left stocks a year or two ago when Bush and his many apologists were saying that things were going great. Listen to any of his State of the Union speeches up until 2008 -- no storm clouds on his horizon. Many investors are starting to get back in, nibbling here and there at the unprecedented values. It won't be too much longer before those nibbles will start to become larger -- and guess where stock prices will head when they do.
adaydream at 03:02 AM JST - 19th February

Obama just got through laying down his plan for the mortage meltdown. It sounded like a good plan and sound.

It doesn't save everybody. But it does give ways that homeowners that need help to get it.

Of course you have to have a job to make house payments and forestall any stimulus help. The federal government isn't going buy your house for you if you don't work.

Help is on the way to some more people who may loose their home. < :-)
TexasAggie at 03:49 AM JST - 19th February

Confidence is what drives the stock market. If Obama inspired confidence the market would rise. He doesn't. It declines further.
yabits at 04:08 AM JST - 19th February

If Obama inspired confidence the market would rise.

If the bubble didn't teach anyone anything else, it should have taught that rising markets are mainly influenced by a rising market, and not about this or that leader.

Since every sell of a stock is also a buy -- the sells just don't go into a black hole -- the folks who are buying today are indeed expressing confidence, are they not?
yabits at 04:11 AM JST - 19th February

If Obama inspired confidence the market would rise.

It wasn't so long ago that a leader was using the bubble conditions to convince everyone that the economy was strong and they should continue to have confidence in it. Even though it was an economy fueled by over-consumption from people taking out equity mortgages on over-inflated housing values.

Is that the kind of confidence you are looking to your leaders to re-ignite?
SuperLib at 07:59 AM JST - 19th February

I don't think Yabits really has an answer.
smithinjapan at 09:52 AM JST - 19th February

SuperLib: "Actually, quite a few people do separate Bush from the crisis since it's really not relevant to what needs to be done in the here and now."

Sorry, but the moment you forget what got you into this mess (or when it started, if that makes you feel better) is the moment you're in danger of repeating it. It'd be like giving a homeowner a bailout for his/her bad loan and not stipulating that they CAN'T repeat what led to the bad loan. They, in turn, cannot simply say, "The past is the past; so let's forget it."
WilliB at 05:21 PM JST - 19th February

Bush did not start the financial excess that led to this; although he certainly participated in it. But now the Democrats take it to an entirely new level. A trillion Dollar loaned from China (or printed, Mugabe-like) for government pork in the first month in office, and pushed in one night, after... drumroll... all of 10 hours time to read the entire 1000 pages.

The same thing under the Reps would have been (correctly) portrayed as a scandal. (We never heard about trillions then; now better get used to it.)
M_Lammerse at 09:23 AM JST - 22nd February

Doing mostly photography work for a large economic related newspaper, I hear sometimes the horror stories which come by. For example that there is still about 15.0000 billion dollar which still will be vaporized..This crisis is an international crisis, which can only be solved international, from China to that of the US, from Japan to South Africa. You can also not compare it with any crisis before, the situation is completely different, there are demographic and many other factors which were of no role by the crisis in the '30s for example. The only thing which is sure, is that the economic models of all modern nations will change. from capitalism -free market to a much more ny state controlled form.
WilliB at 12:57 PM JST - 23rd February

Renaming every government entitlement and pork spending as "stimulus" does not change what it is.

Yet, the Democrats are getting away with this scam. Unbelievable.