[drunken monkey]

Please don't get me wrong, I am not defending Obama or attacking your position on him and his plans; just pointing out that the current climate is such that nothing anyone is going to say or do is going to have any immediate effect on our markets.

A recession is typically taken to be official after 6 months of decline in markets. Once a recession is official, it "usually" lasts at least 18 months before any real change is noticed. Following this, it seems to me that Obama's election and inauguration occured during this period and would suggest that the reality is that the current market decline has little to do with his taking the helm; instead merely doing what it does during such a situation.
i.e continue to fall.
Add to this the fact that one of the key problems here is lack of liquidity in companies (and banks) and that the Libor rates are still so high means that companies who rely on banks to maintain cashflow are going to suffer even more.
i.e lose market worth.

You placing all the blame on Obama for the continued decline equates (to me) to the Obama supporters saying unequivocally that he will get the U.S out of recession.

Recession isn't something that can be reversed overnight no matter how confidence inspiring (or not as the case may be) that any plan or person may be.


As much as I don't like the idea (or perhaps more correctly, the implications) of nationalising banks and companies, I can't ignore the fact that what we need to stablise our respective economies is cash to helps small and medium sized businesses to keep running and right now, the only body with that much cash, is our respective governments. This isn't just about bailing out the big firms, something else that I am also torn on as, well, if the largest employers in your country is simply left to die, what does that mean for their employees?