Business Week: Public Wrong, Markets Right, Obama Plan Working - RawStory

[WillyT]

Business Week: Public wrong, markets right, Obama plan working
By Ron Brynaert
Friday, April 9th, 2010 -- 10:16 am

<snip>

Never mind the polls, Mike Dorning seems to be suggesting in an article for Business Week which analyzes Obama administration's economic policies.

In a shorter version of the article for Bloomberg News, Dorning writes, "Americans believe, by an almost 2-to-1 margin, that the economy has gotten worse rather than better during the past year, according to the March Bloomberg National Poll. The market begs to differ, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports in its April 19 edition. While President Barack Obama’s overall job-approval rating has fallen to a low of 44 percent, down 5 points from late March according to a CBS News Poll, the judgment of financial markets has turned positive."

The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index is up about 75 percent from its recession low in March 2009. Corporate bonds have been rallying for a year. Commodity prices have surged. International currency markets have been bullish on the dollar for months, raising it by about 10 percent since Nov. 25 against a basket of six major currencies. Housing prices have stabilized. Mortgage rates are around 5 percent, down from more than 8 percent in 2000, according to data from Freddie Mac, the McLean, Virginia-based mortgage buyer.

The article includes some favorable reviews of Obama:

"We've had a phenomenal run in asset classes across the board," says Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist for Miller Tabak + Co., an institutional trading firm in New York. "If Obama was a Republican, we would hear a never-ending drumbeat of news stories about markets voting in favor of the President."

....

"There is more business confidence out there," says Boeing (BA) CEO Jim McNerney. "This Administration deserves significant credit."

....

"When you take it all together, the response was massive, unprecedented, and ultimately successful," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com (MCO). Even Obama critics like Phil Swagel, assistant Treasury secretary for economic policy under George W. Bush, acknowledge that White House policies have been successful. "They could have done a better job" by spending more of the stimulus on corporate tax cuts to boost hiring and investment, says Swagel, now an economics professor at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. "But their economic policies, including the stimulus, have helped move the economy in the right direction."

<snip>

More: http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0409/bloomberg-public-wrong-markets-obama-plan-working/

:wow:

:shrug:

[leftstreet]

1. The market is confident, the people are not. Hmm....

indeed

[ericinne]

2. They won't be

They won't be if the job markets start opening up big time. I think much of the disapproval is because some think Obama can somehow wave this magic wand and pull a few million jobs out of his ass.

Usually the same idiots who call him "MESSIAH".

Yeah, we could only wish. :eyes:

[Demeter]

3. Sounds Like BS to Me

People ARE the Economy. And if the people are hurting, the economy is bad.

It doesn't matter what the market says or does, because these days the market is anything but free, transparent and open to all.

You can't buy groceries or pay the gas bill with "confidence", unless you are a Con Man.

[WillyT]

4. I Wasn't Quite Sure HOW To Feel About This Article...

So I put it out there for others to see and comment on.

I sort of see this as both good news politically, but BS realistically.

Ya know???

:shrug:

[Demeter]

5. It's Spin

It's Enron Accounting.

[WillyT]

6. Well... There Is That...

:shrug: