President Obama said Tuesday that now is a good time for investors to buy stocks if they focus on the big picture.
Mr. President, if you want to encourage investors to purchase stocks, get rid of capital gains. In fact, remove the financial tax barriers to investing. I’m not sure how you can encourage investors to take their money and buy stocks to prop up companies in an environment where success is penalized. You’re about to raise taxes on the 5% of people who already pay 45% of the taxes, and who are the ones who can directly invest and drive the economy. Whether you like it or not, its people with money who are the ones that can spend it.
I myself am not spending, and we here have a good capital reserve. We’re not spending because of uncertainty. Uncertainty in the sense that I expect things to get worse, or drag on for a long time because of the stimulus spending bill. The recently landmark spending bill really has nothing to do with jump-starting the economy, but is a collection if ideas that has finally found an excuse and opportunity to be implemented. What we wanted in a stimulus package was something that would actually stimulate the economy today. A good litmus test for the package would have been: anything that does not directly provide a positive impact in improving the economy (jobs, spending, etc.) within five months cannot be in the stimulus bill. Those would have to go through the normal debate process for a spending bill.
via Obama: It’s a Good Time to Buy Stocks – First 100 Days of Presidency – Politics FOXNews.com .
L u k e n . o r g 
I am viewing the whole stimulus thing in a different light by wondering how magnified the hype is that surrounds the situation versus what the truth is. Historically, we have had quite a few “recessions” (sags in consumer spending) since the Great Depression, and all were relatively short hiccups where, sadly, Macy’s posted only a 10% profit versus a 40% profit (boo hoo) and B of A could only open 300 branches per annum versus 400 (sniff sniff).
What makes this “recession” unique from others – the early 1990s being the last significant one (.com meltdown doesn’t count) – is the number of outlets of information spewing out about the situation is practically infinite. CNN, CNNFN, NBC, MSNBC, Fox, Reuters, AP, etc. etc. etc. are all vying for your ear and thus resort to ever increasing predictions of our doom. What makes the situation even better is this methodology is largely orchestrated by using only a few facts to fan the inferno of how HORRIBLE everything is. And when they take a break, we cut to a commercial that loudly proclaims GM cars as the best in the world and if you don’t buy one, well, you don’t want to know what happens then…
Really, I don’t want to know? Have you driven an Impala lately? Try me – I WANT to see what happens.
Yes, my viewpoint of this recession is a bit different. I am turning off my TV, limiting what news sites I read and at what frequency, and focusing on the things we all should have been thinking about before this mess occurred – helping my family thrive and survive by becoming the best society contributors they can be.
Hokey, I know, but it doesn’t involve six 46″ wide screen Vizio TVs or buying lottery tickets…
Wow Tony,
You are a capitalist. You have once again given me hope that other’s GET IT!
But, Obama does have a point. If you believe in a company, now is the time to buy as bargains are everywhere. Fear and uncertainty can’t rule your brain. If the economy goes bad, it will be real bad. You’ll be out of a job, inflation will sky rocket. If you want to save something, go stock up on veggie seeds and fertilizer. Here in Lake Charles, the old timers tell me that during the great depression people hardly noticed it because they had gardens and grew their own food.
Invest in what you know and in companies that are market leaders.