Some might say that President Bush started fiddling with things during his first election. Many in the opposition certainly felt that one of the Bush's was fiddling with something down in Florida. In any event a whole lot of fiddling has been going on since that time. Whatever credit he wants to take for the economy because of his tax cuts (think manipulation or confuscation) of which I am a benefactor, I think it is more delusion on his part.
The real reason as most would acknowledge, even if it is in hindsight, has been the easy credit. We have heard of dumb money -- this was stupid money or insane money -- but fiddle he did. And now that the house (deflated of course) of cards is in the process of coming down, along with the value of our currency we do not see anyone stepping up to shoulder the blame or offer true leadership how to improve our position. Instead we see a lot of finger pointing.
So any day I expect to see President Bush pick up a fiddle just like Nero, position himself on the balcony and start to whip out a tune. As he does, you can just picture Hillary Clinton ordering him to be gently lifted out of the White-house while he continues to play, not realizing that his time has past and it is her turn to point fingers.
Even though Hillary Clinton appears to have high negative sentiment in certain corners, it is also looking more and more like she can start thinking about running mates. Not publicly of course, but the nomination seems to be hers to lose on the Democrat's side. On the Republican side there does not seem to be a bounty of ideas, and none of the candidates will be able to help themselves in any way by linking their futures to Bush or any recent successes of the party. As it stands now, no matter who wins the Republican nomination, it is hard to run on $100 a barrel oil, 40% less potent dollars, no game plan for Iraq, growing deficits, and more.
From my perspective one of the greatest sins of this administration has been that the Republicans controlled the White House and both Houses of Congress and still could not get their house in order! Instead of taking the opportunity to show the Democrats how to control spending they did the opposite and out spent the Dems -- even with the funding of the Iraq war off-budget. If there is a smoking gun this is it. For every other malady there can be some plausible subterfuge, but for this there is no escaping the facts. For this fiscally conservative Republicans are justifiably steamed.
I think several of the Republican candidates would have been, and may yet be, better than Bush in running the country, but winning an election in the current and slipping economic climate would be a first. And mark my words you may yet see Bush fiddle in hand for he has exhausted all his political capital and a sizable amount of the nations financial capital.
For those of you who do not think this post belongs in the stock market arena - wait until you get your monthly statements, and think again. For those of you that are looking at stocks for next year start looking at defense stocks. I expect to be writing about many of them in the coming weeks.
To find potential opportunities and verify my track record, read Chasing Value or Serious Money.
DISCLOSURE: I have no idea who I am voting for although there are some I won't vote for. My guess is the majority of voters would place themselves in the same situation.
Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-12-2007 @ 8:22PM
marshall said...
Borrow and spend Republicans that want to claim to be fiscal conservatives are the worst...good column
11-12-2007 @ 3:44PM
Vicki Tymczyszyn said...
You may be correct about the Republicans in Congress, many of them have admitted their errors, but don't forget that now that we have a Democratically controlled House and Senate, their approval ratings are MUCH less than Bush's-hard to do for so many Bush haters out there-and they have failed to pass any meaningful legislation or funding bills. They continually make 'non-binding' resolutions, against the war, in advance of man-made global warming, etc. all things they think are on the public's minds because they fail to take any meaningful advice on what really matters to people, less taxes, more available money in our pockets to invest in our future and our children's futures, truly supporting our troops overseas or generally trying to help our country move forward in this global war against those that would prefer to see us eliminated from the face of the earth. In short, they are generally making fools of themselves and will not do well to embrace either of the front running candidates since they are part of that body with the exceptionally low approval rating from the country. I think at this pont, both parties have an uphill battle to get in touch with the American people and stop listening to their 'advisers'.