Last week I wrote an article about Rush Limbaugh.
Now, normally I try to ignore Limbaugh, and in general I do a good job of that. But last week I called Limbaugh (and others, like that notorious Rush-wannabe Sean Hannity) to task for saying one of the most absurd things I have ever heard: that Barack Obama was to blame for the current economic crisis.
Is that crazy or what?
I won’t get deep into the details here (use this link for that) but the gist of it is this: that fear of Obama and what he might do...in six to nine months...is actually responsible for all our current economic woes. Seriously; Rush actually said that! But something that happened today has made me revisit this silly idea. Today Obama said that he’s prepared to name his "economic team" as soon as Monday, and the Dow Jones exchange finished up nearly five hundred points. Not a huge rally, I’ll grant you, but a rally nonetheless.
So I‘m wondering if these guys are prepared to claim that if Obama is to blame for recent market falls, as they apparently are, are they also prepared to give him credit for today’s rally?
In a pig’s eye they are.
I fully expect most "right wing" pundits to ignore this occurrence; any who do mention it will either minimize it or try to deny that Obama is in any way responsible. This last approach is dangerous for them; I don’t see how they can claim on the one hand that Obama’s influence is to blame for months of economic free fall and on the other hand deny that Obama’s influence had anything to do with today’s rally, especially when the rally can be directly linked to something Obama actually did.
But it’s just one day’s worth of rally. For now. Monday, either the market will be down again and Rush and Sean will be saying "See? I said it wouldn’t last!" (whether they actually said so or not) or the market will continue upward, in which case they will either ignore it, deny it or say it’s only temporary.
The odd thing is, I don’t see this small recovery anything that Obama can really take much credit for, myself. (And I notice that he hasn’t.) The market, starved for good news, reacted to a bit of good news. This is hardly surprising. But Limbaugh and Hannity et al can’t claim that Obama isn’t responsible for a bit of recovery, however small and however brief, unless they are also willing to admit that their previous drivel, that bit about Obama being responsible for the current economic crisis, was just so much cow flop.
But I never expect that much reason to come out of these guys’ mouths.
Oh, and about that "rally"...the one thing I’ve learned from watching the economy of late, listening to all of the "experts" and following all of the "conventional wisdom" about the market and the economy, all I can say for sure is this:
No one knows a damn thing about it. Not the experts, not the pundits, not the bloggers and certainly not me.
The Blues Viking
The opinions here expressed are mine and if you don’t like them you can get your own damn blog.
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2 comments:
I listen to Marketplace on public radio nearly every night. According to their ongoing reports, the 8 THOUSAND pound gorilla in the room is "Consumer Confidence." What investors might suppose about a (then) future Obama election is an 80 pound orangutan by comparison.
I also watch the DJIA on a regular 10 minute interval, more so when it's crazy. I CAN do this because I have a bunch of Safari widgets watching my website, so I toss another onto Fidelity.com. It's fun to watch. Of late, I see a "Ring Ring Goes the Bell*" mentality, that investors take whatever works at 3pm and drive it either up or down 500 points, easily. I've seen 777 point drops in the last hour.
That Geitner 500 point rise was one of those. Frankly, they are easy to predict, and buying into or selling out of just makes it a self-fulfilling prophecy. Marketplace asked rhetorically. "Is this rally because Obama appointed Gietner, or because he appointed ANYBODY?" With Bush's Treasury Sec Henry (Don't call me Pat) Paulson punting the unused balance of the $700 Billion to Obama's appointee, knowing that SOMEONE was going to catch that ball was a good sign.
While investors DO think that far ahead, consumers don't. Limbaugh should go ditto himself. Yer just fanning the flames by addressing him. ;-)
*"Soon as three o'clock rolls around
You finally lay your burden down"
I have a character flaw. Whenever I hear someone say something absurdly stupid I just have to point at them and say, "That's absurdly stupid!" That's why I don't usually listen to Limbaugh et al...I'd spend all my time saying that something-or-other was stupid and never writing anything else. But sometimes he/she/they say something so obviously dumb I can't help myself. And they did last week. I don't expect anything I have to say to have any influence over them; I sincerely doubt that they even know I exist. And I'm cool with that.
The Blues Viking
These thoughts are mine. Get your own.
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