Does anyone really have a handle on where The Messiah's Hope and Change are taking us? Are we headed for socialism like, say, Sweden and Norway? Some dingy middle ground like the United Kingdom? Social slavery combined with crony capitalism like Red China? Or are we headed for full-blown slavery a la Cuba and Venezuela? And is our economic collapse part of the plan, or is it queering the plan? I'm assuming Walks-On-Water actually has a plan and this isn't merely incompetence and sloganeering, mind you.
On the business end, I can testify that businesses are scared to invest money not only because of the economy, but also because of potential government activity. We've had several projects that were rush jobs before about mid-2008, but have since become inactive not because of the economy, but because of concerns about costs and prohibitive and/or punitive laws and (even more so) regulations. Nuclear especially is on hold everywhere. Without knowing what the government is going to do with their costs and competitiveness via health care and the VAT, CEOs are running scared. Expanding in slow times is a great way to pull a march on the competition, but expanding in slow times combined with a sudden big increase in expenses can lead to bankruptcy or, just as bad to CEOs, being fired.