Details Hurt Obamas Plans

Remember during the presidential campaign neither candidate actually talked about the details of their plans? We had Obama saying that people who made under $200k would get a tax cut and McCain said he would cut taxes on businesses, but neither candidate actually talked about the details, they stayed high level. Of course nobody really cares about the details during an election, all anybody wants to hear are grand ideas and plans about where the new president will take us and what they are going to give everybody. It is also easier on the candidate. They don't have to memorize the details or have to worry about how segments of the electorate will react to the details.

Even between the election and the inauguration Obama didn't release many details. Many though that it was due to the fact that he didn't want to step on Bush. What did come out were vague suggestions to a stimulus plan and another bank bailout plan. The stock market reacted well to this. On November 20th the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) closed at 7,552 a little over a month later on December 31st it closed at 9,034. They liked what Obama had to say, even though there were no details. By the time he was inaugurated the market had dropped to roughly 8,200 and since has dropped nearly another 1,000 points.

I attribute these losses to the details of the plan, or in some cases the lack of details. The market realized that the porkulus will do very little in the coming year to stimulate the economy and the new bank bailout is light on details and relies on private money that will be hard to raise. Would you buy troubled assets if you don't know what they are worth? They have come to the realization that once all of the speeches are over and when details are put on paper, politicians have no idea what to do.

What has made matters worse is that Obama is going around telling everybody how much worse it is going to get. Wow, so much for all that hope. At least W would go out and point out the good things in the economy, now we have a pessimist fueling the fire, I didn't realize Obama would channel Jimmy Carter. I have a suggestion for him, go back to your flowery speeches about nothing and get the government out of trying to fix the economy, because you are only going to make it worse.