McCain Better For Stock Market Than Obama: 21 of 29 Economists Say

hardboiled

slightofjeff wrote:

I don't know that the truth can ever be a mere scare tactic. I mean, it's just a fact that Obama's financial plans won't be good for stockholders.

If that doesn't matter to you, that's fine. Unless you have a shitload of your money in the stock market, maybe this doesn't affect you at all.

For people like my grandparents, who live on a fixed income and have most of their retirement money in 401Ks, Obama is going to cause them a serious financial hit. The tax they get hit with every time they withdraw money is going to go up.

So they won't be voting for Obama.

It doesn't matter to me. The stock market is a joke and has nothing to do with a healthy economy. In fact, I think it is the cause of most of the economic problems we have because it makes INCREASING profits the be-all end-all of business. Not just profit, increasing profit.

A small example is Christmas. Every year about 2 weeks before there is a hysterical outcry about how our economy is doomed because people are not spending enough and profits are down and we all need to go buy shit to save the Christmas season. But it is not because businesses are not making money. Profits are often up. What is really happening is that people take projections of huge profit increases from the Christmas season before and if there is not a significant upswing in business, it's a disaster.

GM and Ford have years where they make billions of dollars in profits, but they are lambasted as failures because their profits were a little bit less than the year before. You are only a successful business if your business grows dramatically, every year, which is an absurd and dangerous expectation and economic plan.

Why is this?

The stock market.

Shareholders don't see profits. What they see is that when a business has a down year, their payout shrinks. The business could still be sound, or just have reached a growth limit, but to the shareholder, it is seen as a pay cut or a failure. Then it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. This drives things like the subprime nonsense... companies desperate for a big score to skyrocket prophets and inflate stock. It drives job loss because companies that could still operate profitably here are pressured into shipping labor overseas solely to create a better profit margin for shareholders. All this accomplishes is an increasing wage gap. Higher stock feeds into better CEO pay packages who enact policies to pay out more to shareholders to drive up stock again. Those who can run the company or play the market see wealth grow exponentially. Those who just work for a living get screwed. It's a vicious cycle. I understand the need for business capital and investment, but the system needs a change because it is so top-heavy it is going to topple.

The stock market now is a game and it's no different than taking your money to Vegas. You throw some money down and hope you win. If it collapses, good fucking riddance. All it does is impersonalize the investment so that companies feel ok taking huge gambles with other people's money in the hopes of a huge win. We should never have bailed out Bear Sterns, let them be a warning to people that if you look only for short term wins to raise your stock, you will pay the price. I don't like government meddling much, but Wall Street has continuously shown it is utterly incapable of moderating its own behavior.

KosmicJelli

slightofjeff wrote:

I don't know that the truth can ever be a mere scare tactic. I mean, it's just a fact that Obama's financial plans won't be good for stockholders.

If that doesn't matter to you, that's fine. Unless you have a shitload of your money in the stock market, maybe this doesn't affect you at all.

For people like my grandparents, who live on a fixed income and have most of their retirement money in 401Ks, Obama is going to cause them a serious financial hit. The tax they get hit with every time they withdraw money is going to go up.

So they won't be voting for Obama.

You are right... it doesnt matter to me... money is just an idea to me... doesnt exist! For the mere fact, propaganda pounded into our sweet and precious brains as children of the value of money. It is nothing but an instrument! A instrument that is wielded by those in power to keep those whom are at the Bottom of the 99% in total control! Pffttt.....

slightofjeff

KosmicJelli wrote:

You are right... it doesnt matter to me... money is just an idea to me... doesnt exist! For the mere fact, propaganda pounded into our sweet and precious brains as children of the value of money. It is nothing but an instrument! A instrument that is wielded by those in power to keep those whom are at the Bottom of the 99% in total control! Pffttt.....

Hmmmm ... I mostly use it to buy bread.

Kann

my2hands wrote:

the same economists that said everyhting was fine 12 months ago? or the same ones that didnt think we were heading into a recession 12 months ago? :rolleyes:

How people keep taking the words that come out of these "expert's" mouths for gold, after all these fuck-ups is something that eludes me.

Abuskedti

slightofjeff wrote:

I don't know that the truth can ever be a mere scare tactic. I mean, it's just a fact that Obama's financial plans won't be good for stockholders.

If that doesn't matter to you, that's fine. Unless you have a shitload of your money in the stock market, maybe this doesn't affect you at all.

For people like my grandparents, who live on a fixed income and have most of their retirement money in 401Ks, Obama is going to cause them a serious financial hit. The tax they get hit with every time they withdraw money is going to go up.

So they won't be voting for Obama.

That is of course flat not true. Obama's plans will mean losses for some stock holders and gains for others. I suppose those that bet on a republican government stand to lose, and those that bet on a democratic government stand to gain... right now they are all sort of hedging until they know which to bet on.

it is silly to argue that Obama will bring down the stock market.. particularly when the current admin presided over a housing meltdown, currency meltdown, energy melt down, military melt down and overspent their budget by hundreds of billions of dollars (not counting the money spent destroying Iraq).

I guess those precious tax cuts couldn't generate revenue sufficient to even pay the bills.