Obama and the Economy

For today's blog, I decided to read someone else's blog for a change. I know what you're thinking, "but Mike, isn't your blog the only blog worth reading?" Although that might be true, every once in awhile a good post can be found elsewhere. That good post was from Professor Grace himself and was concerning our new president and his affect on the stock market. President Obama’s disinterest with the nation’s weak economy decreases the value of stock prices, hindering the growth of global alliances. These important long-term relationships strengthen the world economy, building confidence among domestic and international consumers. Hugo Chávez's poor opinion of Obama's ignorance for Latin America is a key example of how he is responsible for influencing the decrease in stock prices.(1.) His misdirected concentration of resources used for research (i.e. lifting restrictions on federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research), instead of focusing on steps towards economic growth, abolishes future gain potential in the market.

Another downfall lies in the Social Security and income tax increase which he allocated to the high bracket income earners, in turn making them less apt to put forth maximum effort in the workforce. This will decrease the stock market investment rate, disintegrating prices
further.(2.)

Diminishing long-term investments significantly decreases the value of the stock market by the capital gains tax put forth by the President.(.3) Obama’s taxation on individual investors and large corporations will slow the growth of the market causing the fall of long-term investments making them illiquid if owned over a year. Also, the increase from 15% to 28% on the capital gains tax coupled with the allowance of the 2010 Bush tax cuts to expire, creates an undesirable formula of disaster weakening stock prices.(4.)

Sources:
1. http://kdka.com/politics/hugo.chavez.barack.2.965323.html
2. http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/07/mccain_obama.html
3. http://theeprovocateur.blogspot.com/2008/06/barack-obama-vs-stock-market.html
4. http://boards.msn.com/thread.aspx?ThreadID=691804