I've said for some time, as I'm sure others have, that the market is as much psychological as it is fundamental in nature. So usually after a presidential election there's a slight early morning pop in the market. We didn't get that this year, but I digress.
That got me thinking, from a fundamental standpoint we are a free market. I said a while back, when they were forcing through those bailouts, that the gov't needed to decide if we were really a free market or not. Now it looks like the market decided for us, the bailout didn't have the immediate effect they were hoping it had. It doesn't matter what the president does in the end, the market is by and large free. Yes, the president can sign into existence measures that will try and effect it, but they can't magically force it one way or another. Obama will not save the market, Bush won't, nobody will. The market will save itself or fail entirely. That's why when I heard people talking about whether McCain or Obama would be better for the economy my head wanted to explode. It's like this bailout fiasco has taught people NOTHING. All it did was piss people off, have a one day positive effect on the stock market, and then fizzle.
That got me thinking, from a fundamental standpoint we are a free market. I said a while back, when they were forcing through those bailouts, that the gov't needed to decide if we were really a free market or not. Now it looks like the market decided for us, the bailout didn't have the immediate effect they were hoping it had. It doesn't matter what the president does in the end, the market is by and large free. Yes, the president can sign into existence measures that will try and effect it, but they can't magically force it one way or another. Obama will not save the market, Bush won't, nobody will. The market will save itself or fail entirely. That's why when I heard people talking about whether McCain or Obama would be better for the economy my head wanted to explode. It's like this bailout fiasco has taught people NOTHING. All it did was piss people off, have a one day positive effect on the stock market, and then fizzle.