of the union is strong and that the American economy is robust, back in the real world, the cracks were starting to show. For years, economists who understand the consequences of government interventionism in markets have warned that the policies of easy money, reckless spending, debt financing, and tight regulations could only lead to disaster. The mirage of short-term job growth, low inflation, and a booming stock market had to come to end. While it was impossible predict exactly when it would happen, logic and history dictated that the fiscal house of cards Obama has spent the last seven years meticulously building must, eventually, come crashing down.
Now, in the final year of his presidency, it appears as if that moment may have finally come. The Dow Jones has been in freefall, losing close to 1,500 points just since the beginning of the year. Retail sales were down in December, and many fear that this is only the beginning. These ominous symptoms stand in stark relief to the president’s confident assurance in his State of the Union Address that “Anyone claiming that America’s economy is in decline is peddling fiction.” Maybe the cozy insulation of the White House is preventing him from seeing that which is clear to the rest of us.
Then again, maybe he’s just spooked and doesn’t know how to respond. I know I would be, in his shoes. It’s starting to feel a lot like the beginning of the housing crisis in 2007 all over again, only this time Obama doesn’t have a George W. Bush to blame. The responsibility rests squarely on his shoulders, with the struggling economy a direct result of his misguided policies. While the young man who walked into the White House in 2009 thought he could turn back the tides through sheer charisma and oratory, the battered president of today has exhausted every arrow in his quiver, only to find himself right where he started. He literally doesn’t know how to get the economy growing again, nor, apparently, do any of his advisers.
http://spectator.org/articles/65219/his-final-year-obama-reaps-what-he-has-sown
Now, in the final year of his presidency, it appears as if that moment may have finally come. The Dow Jones has been in freefall, losing close to 1,500 points just since the beginning of the year. Retail sales were down in December, and many fear that this is only the beginning. These ominous symptoms stand in stark relief to the president’s confident assurance in his State of the Union Address that “Anyone claiming that America’s economy is in decline is peddling fiction.” Maybe the cozy insulation of the White House is preventing him from seeing that which is clear to the rest of us.
Then again, maybe he’s just spooked and doesn’t know how to respond. I know I would be, in his shoes. It’s starting to feel a lot like the beginning of the housing crisis in 2007 all over again, only this time Obama doesn’t have a George W. Bush to blame. The responsibility rests squarely on his shoulders, with the struggling economy a direct result of his misguided policies. While the young man who walked into the White House in 2009 thought he could turn back the tides through sheer charisma and oratory, the battered president of today has exhausted every arrow in his quiver, only to find himself right where he started. He literally doesn’t know how to get the economy growing again, nor, apparently, do any of his advisers.
http://spectator.org/articles/65219/his-final-year-obama-reaps-what-he-has-sown
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