Last night I went to my weekly dinner with my parents. They weren't in a jovial mood, listening on Fox News how GE apparently misled investors with earnings. GE, who under Bob Welch, became the bluest of the blue chips.

General Electric. The same GE led by Jeffrey Imhelt who until caught was selling crucial stuff to Iran.

I have been out of work since March - having closed my business after many years of slow but percipience sales declines. The recession had nothing to do with it - last night I was telling my ex partner (who has another entrepreneurial idea) how fortunate it was to close when we did as with the few customers we had left - keeping us just barely in the black, well, accounts receivable would have been bad.

That is something for which most who haven't had a business think nothing of - but accounts receivable(and a high a/r) can kill you easier than lack of customers.

Anyway the thought has occurred to me that this administration wants to reward those individuals and companies that made all the wrong decisions while people like myself - and my parents - who have lived conservatively (financially) all of our lives, forgoing the huge houses and $100K cars) seem to be paying for their policy.

But we don't want anything from this administration.

Obama, along with his pals, Pelosi, and Nevada's worst Harry Reid, are doing their level best to punish success and expand the welfare state.

It is no surprise that the DOW and more broader indices like the S+P 500 and Russell 2000 are crashing....destroying untold amounts of wealth.

Much of it earned over years of hard work...

Sadly, this is only the beginning.....
Eastern Europe is on the brink of collapse.....The UK, Japan, and others are struggling not to mention the situation here stateside.
(BTW...many of these stories have been reported on Fox Business....Jake's show....which airs at 1 eastern, has uncovered some really good stuff)

Dont be surprised to see the DOW drop to 3000 or lower....The S+P could easily plunge to 400.

We are entering uncharted waters......

I have enough faith in the American people to believe that they won't let Obama or Bush or any other politician destroy the economic fabric of this country. What I am more concerned about is the lack of true leadership in the Republican party. They will have to produce a charismatic politician who will both be true to Republican principles and listen to what the people want.

Bob,

I share your faith....
But, the liberals in charge could careless what the "American people" want. They are hell bent on establishing the nanny state and see this crisis as their golden, once in a lifetime chance, to establish one.

With the stroke of his pen, Obama doubled the deficit when he signed the stimulus bill.

The markets are responding to that and the fact that savvy investors of all political stripes know the stimulus will surely not create any significant number of private sector jobs.

Now he is ready to rubber stamp another $410 billion spending bill filled with the pork that he promised to cut out "line by line."

I'm waiting for the "Obama lied, your 401 (k) Died" bumper stickers.

Still waiting...

Tomorrow Obama will push through a $3.5 trillion dollar 2010 budget that will blow billions more in pork and also kills tax breaks for homeowners and charitable donations for "the wealthy," (do you know anyone who makes about $250k in L.A. or NYC, or Boston, or Chicago, or Miami, who is really RICH?)

This isn't just about socialism and wealth redistribution.

This is about breaking the human spirit. The inherent human desire to excel and compete.

This is about suicide.

Well, at least the Obama admin isn't pledging a billion to a terrorist entity.

Only 900 million.

Ralphie,

Is that like when a gas station charges 1.99 9/10?

Sadly, there is an objective reality, and Obama and his followers aren't living in it.

Kipling's poem, "The Gods of the Copybook Headings", has never seemed so apt.

Obama lies, our 401(k)s die! -- I gotta get me one of those!

How about "Obama lied, America died"?

I watched a Republican admin take us into the current financial mess and am watching the Dems play with it now.

I don't have much faith in either party.

So what would you recommend be done differently.

Jake.."This isn't just about socialism and wealth redistribution. This is about breaking the human spirit. The inherent human desire to excel and compete"...read the very sad stories about what the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act is doing to small businesses and about a Congresswoman's unbelievably arrogant letter to someone who is trying to bring some rationality to this situation.

Jack said: "I don't have much faith in either party.

So what would you recommend be done differently."

Shoot the politicians...

On second thought -- how about a 2 term limit on ALL state and federal positions? I know there would still be Democrat and Republican shills coming up through the ranks, but seriously, "inside the beltway" is laughable -- they haven't a clue about our daily lives (and, frankly, MANY of them don't care!) They are about power -- getting it and maintaining it -- pure and simple. At least we should limit the range of their greed. I don't think any of the Founding Fathers envisioned the career politicians we have now.

Jack:

In brief: Cut taxes. Do not spend money that does not exist, do not increase the power of government, do not establish a welfare nanny state, do not continue bailing out failed companies.

And do not keep telling the American people that we are on the verge of catastrophe; this is not leadership but fear mongering that has the effect of closing down credit markets, and spreading the loss of confidence like prairie fire.

And take Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, primarily responsible for the prime credit mess, and send them to Devil's Island. Giving them more continued responsibility is like appointing Hizbullah to take care of security for my shul.

To add to Robert's points....

I would eliminate the capital gains tax, as well as drastically reduce corporate tax rates.

These two things would spur growth and encourage entrepreneurship.

Robert, I found this picture and thought of you:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/uteart/438334214/

In brief: Cut taxes. Do not spend money that does not exist, do not increase the power of government, do not establish a welfare nanny state, do not continue bailing out failed companies.

I hear what you are saying, but I don't think that we can avoid some of these things. The fact is that we are fighting two wars and they have been draining our coffers for years.

Note that I didn't say anything about success or failure of the wars, just that we are engaged in them.

The recession began under Bush and just as I give him credit for the lack of successful attacks I give him "credit" for his role in our economic difficulties. He spent money that didn't exist repeatedly.

I do not believe that we can allow so many institutions, companies and people to go belly up. There is a ripple effect that impacts all of us.

Not everyone who is being helped was irresponsible with their money. Many are the victim of circumstances. I am still waiting to be paid for some of the work that I did and frankly I don't expect that it is going to come in.

Not my fault that these people can't pay, but I can't deposit a "Wish" check in the bank. The net result is that I have far less to spend and am cutting back like crazy.

I see that all around me.

So while I agree that perception has an impact upon our economy I also believe that the reality is that it is in dire trouble. Hence it is appropriate for government to take some steps to shore things up.

If nothing else they have to find a way to get the banks to start lending money again.

Anyway, from my chair it looks like a perfect storm and I don't think that anyone really knows what to do or what will happen. THere is a lot of speculation and hope involved here.

Jack - it is the nature of politicians to spend money to keep themselves in office. You won't find many conservatives willing to sefend GW Bush for his spending - and then establishing yet another entitlement program - Medicare Part B.

These entitlements are today by far the biggest part of the budget.

And last year we spent $500 Billion in paying this national debt.

These politicians are so reckless with our money and our grandchildren's money.

You get to the point with debt that it starts to dominate your financial world, and your stand of living goes down.

As my father said in re: personal finances "You make only so much money in your lifetime - do you want to pay it on yourself or interest?"

What these California politicians have done is nearly ruin the state - our expenditures have gone up $40 billion in just 5 years - $40 billion is the estimated deficit - and these people couldn't even roll back their expenditures 5 years - instead raising taxes - in a deep recession -

Beginning of Buyer's Remorse?

I heard an interesting theory the other day - the traders on the floor on the NYSE are no different demographically from other Manhattanites - the majority are Democrats who voted got Obama.

And yet they are seeing their wealth evaporate just like the Republicans.

Wonder how many billions Ophrah has lost so far...or Buffet.

In Israel we're also feeling the economic crunch. The forecast is very very bleak. Rumour has it that a major bank is on the verge of collapse. Many small businesses have already closed down and the high tech industry which Israel is famous for has suffered greatly with thousands of lay-offs.
Bibi has just publicized that he will indeed cut taxes in 2009 and has been discussing new infrastructure projects as well(Power plants and desalination plants)
Unfortunately a tiny country like Israel cannot recover quickly without a strong US economy.

I'm not sure it's fair to blame the current mess on the previous Republican administration, whose spokesman warned in vain of the coming crisis and were unsuccessful in checking Dodd and Frank.

I'm not sure term limits will do anything but shift more power to the judiciary and the bureaucracy, both of which have effective lifetime tenure.