March 8, 2009

The deep roots of the "Obama Bear Market"

Now that the bloom is starting to come off the rose, I'm back to explore the President's emotional attitudes toward business in my new VDARE.com column.

On the last day of the ill-fated Bush Administration, the Dow Jones average stood at 8,281, down catastrophically from its 2007 peak—yet still almost 25 percent higher than the Dow’s close on Friday, March 6, 2009 of 6,627.

You might think that George W. Bush would be an easy act to follow. After all, he was inept enough to overlook the basic rule of politics that kept the Bush family’s friends in Mexico’s PRI party in power for so many years: Make sure the economic collapse happens right after the election, not right before.

And yet, what is now technically the "Obama Bear Market" shows that Obama may be down to the challenge of being Bush’s successor.

It’s important to understand that Obama was never a Depression Democrat who worries that the capitalist system can’t produce enough wealth. Obama didn’t run for President to help Americans earn more money. By upbringing, he’s more a Sixties person who assumes that businesspeople will continue—in their unseemly way—to produce plenty of riches, which a better sort of person (such as, say, himself) should redistribute in a more equitable and refined fashion.

When Obama began his campaign in early 2007, this worldview made a certain amount of sense. In early 2009, however, it’s obviously out of date. We aren’t as rich as we thought we were before the bubble burst.

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My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

86 comments:

Anonymous said...

Obama's tolerance of Asians while disliking whites is quite interesting. I wonder how he sees Jews?

Anonymous said...

You left out Frank Marshall Davis.

Anonymous said...

Steve --

A couple of points.

First, Obama by all accounts fell into his father's sin of drunken-ness, only with drugs, in his own book. You fail to mention that, along with his apparent conversion to Islam in the early 1980's while at Columbia. At Occidental the years before he was a heavy drug user, by his and other's accounts.

Next, the British Press in describing Obama's snub of Gordon Brown, called Obama "tired and emotional" which is the usual British Press euphemism for being drunk. Obama reportedly has a blow-out party every Wed and has had parties every night since the inauguration for private Black backers and celebrities, with Michelle Obama cautioning guests not to break the furniture or other objects (some have been broken). Obama stays up late partying.

So both sins: substance abuse and Big Man patronage, re-occur in Obama just like his father. Obama's celebrity courting may be different in slight form than the classic Big Man, but it's still there. When you have Jay-Z and Lil Jeezy and Matt Damon over every night, that's pure Big Man patronage.

Anon: Obama dislikes Jews intensely, it's why he's courted Palestinian guys for no obvious payoff, consistently throughout his career. Blacks pretty much hate Jews, it's a systemic failing of their culture.

Obama is a disaster that will create a broken economy, and probably a Perot-like figure taking power. He's just so innately anti-White it can't be hidden much longer. The most revealing thing for anyone is wielding power. Obama has real power, and the damage he will do is enormous.

Of course, Obama has in his hatred for Whites, particularly White men, allies. Rich White Radical Yuppies, White Women, and Blacks and Hispanics will work with him. But he's never experienced a crashing depression where a White Majority expects to be looked after FIRST.

Anonymous said...

Every time Obama flubs it reveals how radical he truly is. From his treatment of Gordon Brown to his return of the Churchill bust to his "spreading the wealth" comment to Joe Plumber to his decision to tackle healthcare and unionization and Palestime at a time when he should be solely focused on the economy - we know who he is. The paleocons were right; the "moderate," well-meaning Republicans like Buckley, Frum, Cramer, and Parker were wrong.

My feelings before the election, when people argued how great it would be to finally get a black president, were simply "wouldn't it be nice, though, to have a good black president?"

They haven't changed yet, and I doubt they will.

Anonymous said...

testing99 said:

"Anon: Obama dislikes Jews intensely..."

Sure, that's why he got Axelrod to run his campaign, and just about every second apointee in his cabinet is Jewish.

Anonymous said...

I once asked a prominent Jewish right winger why Blacks hated Jews so much.

He replied, jokingly, that Black hatred of Jews was divine retribution for the extreme efforts of Jews to advance sometimes illegitimate Black interests in order to harm Whites.

Anonymous said...

Steve,
Your article on VDare entitled "The “Obama Bear Market” And Why He Triggered It" is a great read.

" Like the more famous "national" variety of socialism, Obama Sr.‘s version of socialism is less interested in ideology than in Lenin’s old questions of Who? Whom?

The apotheosis of this line of thought is seen today in Robert Mugabe‘s economically desolate Zimbabwe."


At long last you repeat my assertion made long ago on this blog that if you want to understand Obama, you need to look at Mugabe in Zimbabwe. Mandela btw is just a more PC-polished version of Mugabe.

Anonymous said...

Obama dislikes Jews intensely, it's why he's courted Palestinian guys for no obvious payoff - T99

Lets not dwell on Rahm Emanuel, sorry Rahm Israel Emanuel at this point and his role in the Obama pantheon.

The obvious payoff is appealing to SWPL types in the US (and abroad.) As long his handlers know the reality - ie the aid to Israel keeps flowing, the military equipment, the UN votes, why should they worry.

After all most Jews in the US vote Democrat, are we saying they don't have Israel's best interests at heart? And if they dont, why do you?

Anonymous said...

Tired and emotional has become such a euphemism over here that strictly speaking it isn't even a euphemism anymore!

Anonymous said...

"Sure, that's why he got Axelrod to run his campaign, and just about every second apointee in his cabinet is Jewish."

Got nothing to do with it...

Anonymous said...

I don't think Obama really feels strongly about Jews or even whites, at least anymore. His book may not be such a great guide to his real instincts on race because it was likely ghost written by Bill Ayers.

Obama is just an empty suit opportunist who will hang out with Palestinian radicals in order to build street cred in da hood and then will ditch the Palestinians in favor of Jewish voters when it suits his political interests.

Anonymous said...

"Got nothing to do with it..."

Why not?

Mike said...

Holding Obama accountable for the present economy is a bit much, to be honest. I guess I don't buy this "Obama Bear Market" label.

Anonymous said...

Well done Mike, you are a nice person. Too bad O and his operators could give a fig for your decency.

Unknown said...

Brilliant piece.

One aspect of Obama that strikes me as a bit underdiscussed is his preppiness and Ivy-Leaguedness. FWIW, he has so far struck me as more of a JFK-era Best and Brightest entitled know-it-all than as the "socialist" some describe him as. I wrote a bit about my hunch here.

Dutch Boy said...

I think Depression Democrats were not so much concerned with wealth creation as wealth distribution. Obviously, capitalist systems create abundant wealth; however, capitalists (and their ideological defenders) stress holding down costs as a key to wealth creation. The principal cost is labor, thus capitalists tend to defend measures that hold down the cost of labor (e.g, opposition to labor unions, outsourcing, offshoring, etc.). The 1950s were a great time for most American workers precisely because they got a larger cut of the wealth created by the capitalist system. Those good old days are gone in the era of wage arbitrage (aka free trade).

Jeff Burton said...

Even though I have renounced Obama and all his works, I find it hard to credit the assertion that we are experiencing an "Obama Bear Market." The damage he is causing and will causing won't be as obvious as a falling stockmarket for quite some time.

Evil Sandmich said...

"Obama and his sister are outraged when the black waiter gives quicker service to the white Americans sitting nearby."

Maybe they were getting slow service because the people sitting at Obama's table were intolerable jerks.

neil craig said...

I don't think the view that making money is businessmen's job & spending it is government's made much sense in 2007 either. It is precisely that attitude that has had western economies shuffling along at 1-4% growth while those of China, Singapore, Russia, Brazil, India, Irelamd(!) etc have managed 6-11%.

All they had to do was to keep they golden goose properly fed & not suffocate it.

Anonymous said...

---"Got nothing to do with it..."

Why not?---

Plenty of people who hate each other get together when they have common interests, goals, etc...It doesn't have to be a group hug, you know.

Anonymous said...

"Holding Obama accountable for the present economy is a bit much, to be honest. I guess I don't buy this "Obama Bear Market" label."

No, it isn't. Why is he continuing Bush's failed policies, not to mention the tax and spend dissater headed our way? The markets are reacting because they have no confidenec in this guy's decisions, his future or the people (tax cheats) he has got on board.

Anonymous said...

The article title is tongue-in-cheek. Steve is simply pointing out that a politician is going to own whatever happens on his watch even where, as here, the current market decline started unfolding in the last days of the Bush administration.

Of course, President Barack Hussein Obama is apparently hell-bent on distorting whatever areas of the economy Bush left untouched.

--Senor Doug

Anonymous said...

It is ridiculous to call this "Obama's Bear Market", and you know it Steve. The stock market still hasn't priced in all the fraud and illusory earnings of the past 20 years. The market still needs to get down to 5000 or so - that's the real "Bush level" that would accurately reflect the real economy. If it's still at 5000 or lower 2 years from now that will be Obama's fault. If it's higher than that Steve will have to either give Obama some credit, or identify what's creating yet another bubble.

Anonymous said...

The markets are reacting because they have no confidenec in this guy's decisions, his future or the people (tax cheats) he has got on board.

This kind of comment is just stupid - look at the earning we're seeing for 2008. Of course the market is tanking. Why the hell would any sensible investor have confidence in any new policy at this point? Even if Obama is a genius it will take him years to fix the mess scumbags like Bush and Clinton helped create.

Anonymous said...

"Obama and his sister are outraged when the black waiter gives quicker service to the white Americans sitting nearby."

Maybe they were getting slow service because the people sitting at Obama's table were intolerable jerks.

------------------

We may never know. But what strikes me is Obama's equinimous reactions to the Kenya's subservient environment. What the piece shows is O's rather constrained and temperate thoughts to Auma's reactionary statements.

And it's not unknown that low level service workers do take out their resentments on people they see as more their kind.

Anonymous said...

---"Got nothing to do with it..."

Why not?---

Plenty of people who hate each other get together when they have common interests, goals, etc...It doesn't have to be a group hug, you know.



OK.

Anonymous said...

---This kind of comment is just stupid.---
...sez Peter

I guess. I''m not sure why though. Obama is continuing Bush's failed policies, Geithner is a tax cheat and nobody I know has any confidence in him or the idiots at the wheel. Do you? Nbody here is saying Bush and Clinton are blameless, but maybe I missed it(and I actually mentioned it). But I'll repost the part of my previous comment you neglected to cut and paste:


"Why is he continuing Bush's failed policies, not to mention the tax and spend disater headed our way?"

You probably voted for Obama and I can see now why you're upset. You can join the club with Maureen Dowd and the other suckers.

Anonymous said...

Obama is not responsible for the conditions he inherited (except to the degree he did helped or hindered them in the Senate). People are right to assign Clinton and Bush heavy blame.

But Obama is responsible for his administration's present actions. So far, these amount to continuing Bush's futile and harmful bailout policy.

What Obama could do, but has not, is direct the Justice Dept. to purge the fraud out of the system. All we've seen so far from that department is Holder's Hundred Flowers speech.

Anonymous said...

Evil Sandmich said...
"Obama and his sister are outraged when the black waiter gives quicker service to the white Americans sitting nearby."

"Maybe they were getting slow service because the people sitting at Obama's table were intolerable jerks."

Maybe. More likely they were getting slow service because Africans are terrible tippers, compared with most whites. Trust me.

Anonymous said...

Maybe they were getting slow service because the people sitting at Obama's table were intolerable jerks.

Likelihood is high that the waiter was discriminating both racially and rationally based on racial differences in tipping. (also, white people give waiters less shit than blacks do, generally)

Anonymous said...

Obviously anecdotal, but I'm embarrassed by being waited on. I apologize to waiters for making messes or being less than a good customer. Other customer types feel that waiters are there to fulfill their lord of the manor fantasies. The latter is by no means exclusively a black fantasy, but in my experience people who fit into my type are disproportionately white.

Anonymous said...

"The stock market still hasn't priced in all the fraud and illusory earnings of the past 20 years. The market still needs to get down to 5000 or so - that's the real 'Bush level' that would accurately reflect the real economy."

If there's a real Bush level that you already know, then the market knows it and it's already priced accordingly. If, instead, the market is still feeling out the appropriate price, then the market should be jumping up and down, not taking a nosedive.

Obama inherited a bad economy and then decided to see how much worse he could make it.

Anonymous said...

I wonder how he sees Jews?

Ask the Pritzkers.

Truth said...

"Anon: Obama dislikes Jews intensely, it's why he's courted Palestinian guys for no obvious payoff, consistently throughout his career. "

OF course he does, that's why he appointed one chief of staff!

Tell me, do you guys get dumber by the day or is it just my imagination?

Anonymous said...

Obama's appointment of Emmanuel, and Axelrod's prominence, has to be balanced against his attending Rashid Khalidi's going away party (with Michelle) and apparently both applauding and making fairly anti-Semitic remarks at the party.

The LAT has the video tape and will not release it, showing how incendiary it is. The LAT being in meltdown and the tape on their website potentially making them like Drudge was with the Lewinsky story.

Why did Obama do that? What benefit did he get from it? What money, political backing, and so on did he gain against the catastrophic cost of being found out, in the age of video cellphones?

For every SWPL person who likes a great deal of Jew/Israeli bashing (including many secular Jews who are merely SWPL not observant Jews and view themselves immune) there are about 5 Baptists, social conservatives, and others who would be turned off greatly and view Obama as the enemy, a not very closet Muslim and anti-American to boot, prone to boot-licking anti-American terrorists and jihadis.

I suppose it might have brought in Saudi and Gulf money by the truckload, but GWB shows one can be far more discreet and still get that money.

As far as Paleocons go, they got it wrong. They were seduced by Obama's hatred of Israel and the military and general isolationism and anti-Americanism and so generally liked him: Buchanon, Dennis Dale, etc.

The social conservatives, the Joe the Plumbers, Sarah Palins, the Fred Thompsons, the Mitt Romneys, the NRAs, represeenting basically the White middle/working class, loathed Obama from the start.

The "Gentry" ala Frum, Peggy Noonan, Krauthammer, Kathleen Parker, etc. loved Obama as both Mark Steyn and Joel Kotkin have noted, because he hailed from the same upper-class background and represented what Spike Lee called the shamanistic "healer" of the "Magical Negro" (from all the films where a Magical Morgan Freeman "heals" the spiritually wounded White protagonist).

It's easy to grow 14% when you start from nothing, a mature industrial economy growing at 4-5% is a remarkable achievement.
-------------
Obama is a disaster, much worse, far worse than Bush, because during a deep recession he is not doing the one proven by history method of getting out of it:

Jump-starting industrial production by re-arming, which causes massive amounts of hiring and capital spending that creates new factories (economies of scale after the military spending ends).

He at the same time proposes massive new taxes, with a few winners (Al Gore and other connected people) in Carbon Credits cap and trade. Limiting CO2 emissions from almost everything, with massive costs heaped on every US producer, the net effect to drive production of EVERYTHING to China where there are no cap and trade limits, and make basic electricity and everything else hideously expensive to benefit a few connected insiders.

Basically, Obama does not think we are in crisis, is not acting like it, believes wealth just happens magically, and has no clue as to how to operate in what Ed Driscoll calls a "Rendezvous with Scarcity."

He spoke before Telemundo and promised open borders and Amnesty. In a Depression. His spendulus bill will employ millions of illegal aliens at the expense of US workers.

Politically, this makes the argument potent: The Welfare State benefits ONLY Blacks and Hispanics, Whites get shafted, and get money out of their pockets with "No White Men allowed!" ala Robert Reich. Given that White men still are the largest demographic group, this is a huge political mistake, notwithstanding the SWPL brigade. Who in any event will be numerically smaller by a large chunk as the recession moves ever onward.

Anonymous said...

Peter said...

It is ridiculous to call this "Obama's Bear Market", and you know it Steve. The stock market still hasn't priced in all the fraud and illusory earnings of the past 20 years. The market still needs to get down to 5000 or so - that's the real "Bush level" that would accurately reflect the real economy. If it's still at 5000 or lower 2 years from now that will be Obama's fault. If it's higher than that Steve will have to either give Obama some credit, or identify what's creating yet another bubble.


Yo, Peter. The stock market is a forward looking vehicle and not a backward looking one. The market is pricing in Obama's policies, or lack there of, and how they will detrimentally affect the economy. Get it now, genius?

Anonymous said...

including many secular Jews who are merely SWPL

Wow. This may be the first time T99 has ever criticized members of his own tribe. And here I thought he was using SWPL as codeword for his bete noire, the WHEs.

Anonymous said...

"I once asked a prominent Jewish right winger why Blacks hated Jews so much.

He replied, jokingly, that Black hatred of Jews was divine retribution for the extreme efforts of Jews to advance sometimes illegitimate Black interests in order to harm Whites."

The straight answer:

Blacks hate Jews because Jews are ... (drum cymbals)...WHITE!

neil craig said...

Testing99 said
"It's easy to grow 14% when you start from nothing, a mature industrial economy growing at 4-5% is a remarkable achievement."

This is a common belief/excuse but it is completely wrong. If it were true Haiti & Zimbabwe would be growing fast & Singapore stagnating. In fact history shows growth tends to be higher in the already richer countries. This may be related to Moore's law but certainly it has been the observed fact since before the 1st Industrial Revolution. when the world's poorest straved & the wealthiest had enough to eat - usually. Nowadays the world's wealthiest are 250 times better off, per capita, then the poorest countries. If China et al are growing at 10% & the US could manage 4% on a good year (Europe 3%) it is because is China trying & the western countries have succumbed to Ludditism. They could manage, perhaps beat 10% if they tried.

Anonymous said...

T99, you voted for the O., didn't you?

Anonymous said...

He isn't going to last. He'll be ousted in a veiled coup, mark my words. A few nasty moves by China, or some other provocation he cannot handle and his days as CinC are over. A "curtailment of Presidential duties" or some such thing will be announced and to the sidelines he goes.

Anonymous said...

Testing99 said
"It's easy to grow 14% when you start from nothing, a mature industrial economy growing at 4-5% is a remarkable achievement."

This is a common belief/excuse but it is completely wrong. If it were true Haiti & Zimbabwe would be growing fast & Singapore stagnating.


No, your response is completely wrong. The "common belief" you criticize does not imply anything about how much any country's economy should grow annually; it speaks of how much a country's economy could grow annually with intelligent intervention. Quite obviously, we know of a way to increase Zimbabwe's economy by 20%, 50%, perhaps even 100% or more in one year: re-instate the former White government. You can't do anything to achieve returns like that in a developed country.

Anonymous said...

"The "Gentry" ala Frum, Peggy Noonan, Krauthammer, Kathleen Parker, etc. loved Obama as both Mark Steyn and Joel Kotkin have noted, because he hailed from the same upper-class background..."

Peggy Noonan didn't come from an upper-class background. She went to FDU.

Dave

Anonymous said...

Hey, maybe we can call up Chancellor Merkel and ask her if she can invade Poland again?

Anonymous said...

As a practicing CPA smack dab in the Oil Patch (an industry that actually produces something that is needed) Osama will completely eradicate the domestic O&G business if he gets his way with passive loss provisions, IDC and % depletion (i.e. eliminates those tax deductions for independent producers/investors). Last, that cap and wealth fade policy will be nothing but the "Bezzle". With the above policies he might even make the Unabomber happy because we will all be riding bicycles soon.

AmericanGoy said...

"Obama's tolerance of Asians while disliking whites is quite interesting. I wonder how he sees Jews?"

Oh oh oh - me me me!

http://americangoy.blogspot.com/2008/11/obama-shows-his-true-colors-on-day-1.html

"It is deja vu all over again, as Yogi Berra used to say.

What did Obama do the day after getting the Democratic presidential nomination?

Well, that is not true.

What did Obama do 12 hours after being nominated by the Democratic voters as a possible president of the USofA?

If you have been reading my blog, you would know.

Quoting Washington Post: It's a Mitzvah, dateline June 5, 2008, by Dana Milbank.

A mere 12 hours after claiming the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama appeared before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee yesterday -- and changed himself into an Israel hard-liner.



What?

Mr. Hope and Change (tm) changed himself into a pro Israel hard liner?

A mere hours after being nominated the Democratic presidential nominee, he went to AIPAC to praise Israel.

Do you remember the brouhaha the talking heads on TV raised because Obama was not usually wearing an American flag lapel?

No problems here - he was wearing an ISRAELI flag on his lapel."

Note: if linking to blog directly is passe, do not pass go, do not admit and feel free to slap me silly :-)

Anonymous said...

Theory 1: He wants the economy to get worse, because it allows him to enact more of his socialist agenda, ala FDR.

Theory 2: He's focusing on his socialist agenda now because he knows he can pass it now. If the economy doesn't get any better in 6-12 months it quickly becomes his recession.

Theory 3: He's focusing on the socialist stuff now because he probably won't get it the closer we get to an election, and definitely won't get it after the mid-terms, when Dems will probably lose seats.

Theory 4: He doesn't care about re-election. Getting more of your policies enacted is better, even if you lose your second term, because a government entitlement is forever.

Theory 5: He is so vilely anti-American that he wants American assets snatched up on the cheap by foreign investors.

Theory 6: He wants American assets bought up on the cheap by his cronies, like George Soros.

Theory 7: He's just too damn stupid to know how to fix it, so why not loot while the lootin' is good, Nawlins Style!

If it's a little bit of each, plus a few I didn't think of, I wouldn't be shocked.

Anonymous said...

Obviously anecdotal, but I'm embarrassed by being waited on. I apologize to waiters for making messes or being less than a good customer. Other customer types feel that waiters are there to fulfill their lord of the manor fantasies. The latter is by no means exclusively a black fantasy, but in my experience people who fit into my type are disproportionately white.

I feel the same way. When I buy a few items at a convenience store and the guy or girl behind the counter brings out a bag, I'll often grab my stuff and put it in the bag while they hold the bag open. I honestly feel a little ashamed standing there like a useless lump watching someone else do all the work. Ordinarily, I thank them and wish them a nice day before they get a chance to do the same.

Sadly, whites who act this way are a minority. Even sadder is that minorities who act this way are a rarity.

Anonymous said...

"Tell me, do you guys get dumber by the day or is it just my imagination?"

What's with "you guys", as if all the commenters here were a homogeneous group who agreed with each other all the time? As much as you would like to see yourself as above the fray with your "Truth"-ful views, you are "one of us".

Anonymous said...

One aspect of Obama that strikes me as a bit underdiscussed is his preppiness and Ivy-Leaguedness. FWIW, he has so far struck me as more of a JFK-era Best and Brightest entitled know-it-all than as the "socialist" some describe him as.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omHUsRTYFAU

Still have that impression?

He's a cut above the average black race-hustler, but it's racial resentment his driven by. That's why he knows so much less about the way world actually works than he knows about how he can make it work for him. That much has to be clear.

Obama's appointment of Emmanuel, and Axelrod's prominence, has to be balanced against his attending Rashid Khalidi's going away party (with Michelle) and apparently both applauding and making fairly anti-Semitic remarks at the party.


Why did Obama do that? What benefit did he get from it? What money, political backing, and so on did he gain against the catastrophic cost of being found out, in the age of video cellphones?


Obama probably grew up under the impression that Jews were 'the Man' too.

It's not hard to believe that when he began to shine he had it explained to him that, no, no, no, Jews hate whitey just as much as you do.

Anonymous said...

testing99: Obama reportedly has a blow-out party every Wed and has had parties every night since the inauguration for private Black backers and celebrities, with Michelle Obama cautioning guests not to break the furniture or other objects (some have been broken). Obama stays up late partying.

Do you have a source for this - any URLs?

Truth said...

"As much as you would like to see yourself as above the fray with your "Truth"-ful views, you are "one of us".

Well...I do have the same chromosome count...I think.

Anonymous said...

Lucius Vorenus said...
testing99: Obama reportedly has a blow-out party every Wed and has had parties every night since the inauguration for private Black backers and celebrities, with Michelle Obama cautioning guests not to break the furniture or other objects (some have been broken). Obama stays up late partying.

Do you have a source for this - any URLs?



www.t99pullsbogusstoriesoutofhisass.com

Anonymous said...

He isn't going to last. He'll be ousted in a veiled coup, mark my words. A few nasty moves by China, or some other provocation he cannot handle and his days as CinC are over. A "curtailment of Presidential duties" or some such thing will be announced and to the sidelines he goes.

Leaving us with President..... Biden?

Thanks for the nightmares.

Anonymous said...

"Tell me, do you guys get dumber by the day or is it just my imagination?"

Truth is just a boastful ass wildly overestimating his intellectual abilities. To boot he is arrogant and obnoxious as well.

Anonymous said...

Anybody have the time to try to add a just a mention of the contirbution of government imposed lending policies on banks towards minorities via the CRA to wikipedia? I've read through 2 or 3 articles on the 2008-2009 financial crisis and there is absolutely no mention of it. There is mention of the CRA being used as an instrument to get more loans out to low-income families, and there is mention of housing prices beginning to bubble around 1995 - the Clinton years. But that's it.

jack strocchi said...

Steve Sailer says:

It’s important to understand that Obama was never a Depression Democrat who worries that the capitalist system can’t produce enough wealth.

I agree with Steve Sailer on most of his cultural analysis and political commentary. Although I'm probably a little bit more optimistic on the prospects of low IQ Africans & Mexicans to improve their lot through sociological intervention. Provided they are subject to strict institutional supervision and simple instrumental facilitation.

But I dont think Steve Sailer's economic analysis are up to the scratch he has carved out in his cultural and political beat.

This post does not contain much serious analysis of Obama's spending, taxing and regulating policies. To the extent I am accross them they seem to be headed in the right direction:

- federalising the health insurance industry,

- massive federal support for cleaner nationally sourced energy,

- nationalisation the ailing bits of the financial industry;

- raising taxes on HVI's

The Right has had control of these parts of the economy for the past generation and has failed to perform at acceptable levels. The US has just had a sequence of two federal elections returning candidates with a strong Economic Leftist orientation.

(Unfortunately these candidates support base is in California, which is culturally liberal and therefore bad.)

No doubt Obama will waste gazillions of dollars on community organizers and the like. But Bush wasted gogillions of dollars with his dumb tax cuts that went to finance electric poodle polishers for Palm Beach widows and the like.

In the great scheme of things I think I would prefer Obama's wasteful expenditure, which is at least more egalitarian.

Steve also seems to have accepted the fringe Right-wing critique of Roosevelt's economic policies. This just wont wash. To the extent that Roosevelt made mistakes it was because he was not Left-wing and statist enough, not too much. When in 1937 he back-slid from Keynsian and reverted to balanced budgets the economy went into another nosedive.

The thing that pulled the US out of the Great Depression was WWII socialism. This was an escalation from fiscal stimulation to factoral direction of production. Which, incidentally, was the US's most virile phase of industrial growth.

The Depression Democrats in short, were staggeringly successful in creating wealth. Directly through socialist means and indirectly, by getting capitalism back on its feet.

Obama's key economic advisors are Warren Buffet and Paul Volcker. Both Democrat Geezers with a keen memory of the Depression-New Deal-WWII. I dare say they approve of the Obama spendathon with that experience in mind.

Anonymous said...

testing99:
For every SWPL person who likes a great deal of Jew/Israeli bashing (including many secular Jews who are merely SWPL not observant Jews and view themselves immune) there are about 5 Baptists, social conservatives, and others who would be turned off greatly and view Obama as the enemy,

"Christian Zionism" is a heresy. Baptists and other evangelicals are going to have to face up to this eventually and purge it from their theology.

Anonymous said...

"Anon: Obama dislikes Jews intensely, it's why he's courted Palestinian guys for no obvious payoff, consistently throughout his career. Blacks pretty much hate Jews, it's a systemic failing of their culture."

Pure comedy.

Anonymous said...

Here is link to a story that claims that claims, like testing99, that Obama has wild parties at the White House. The article is based on claims by an organization that hasn't yet released any information that I know of, but that is the source I remember running across a few days ago.

Anonymous said...

What's with "you guys", as if all the commenters here were a homogeneous group who agreed with each other all the time?

Basic rhetorical device. Any site will attract a few wackos. Can't refute an argument? Then associate it with one of the wackos' viewpoints. All it takes is a common American idiom ("you guys", "the people here", "all you bigots", etc.).

Anonymous said...

On "blowouts"

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D96M09BO0&show_article=1

I found this with a quick googling for what its worth.

Anonymous said...

and this:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/18635.html

does seem like they are trying to having weekly cocktail parties on wednesdays.

Anonymous said...

I don't care if T99's story was bogus - it sounded great to me!

Anonymous said...

i don't understand how obama's wealth redistribution politics do not ALWAYS work. they work in south africa where 40 million africans extort 5 million europeans. yet the europeans are still, somehow, able to keep to keep the country functional. heck, white south africans build their own nuclear reactors, and will host the 2010 world cup. all the while being murdered and wealth redistributed into oblivion.

obama could raise the federal income tax rate to 50% on everybody earning $100,000 a year, and the united states would STILL be a HIGHLY functional, extremely technologically advanced superpower. it has 200 million europeans to extort. they can build, innovate, and develop enough infrastructure, industry, and jobs to support 1 billion brown parasites.

i don't see how that's not the way the US operates already. it's mestizo and african citizens are basically economic parasites. they will be able to leech off the europeans for centuries.

Anonymous said...

Dr Ravi Batra says otherwise.

"Despite all that short-term pessimism, he’s convinced that positive change is on the way as well. He sees it in his historical economics cycles and the social cycles.

“We are on the verge of a social revolution — it’s already started [with Obama’s election]. The second part, where the theories are discarded and new ideas take over and new reforms take over — that part has yet to occur, and that will take a few years,” he predicted. “After that occurs, the age of acquisitors will be over, and there will be a new age with a totally different attitude toward taxation and the economic system.”

The revolution, which he believes could happen in a couple of years or sometime soon after that, should bring in a new chapter of greater economic equality and less poverty and suffering — first in the U.S., then rippling out to the rest of the world, he thinks.

“The U.S. has never been in any other age other than the age of acquisitors. So this will be a new experience for the U.S.,” he said."

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2008/12/21/prophet-of-boom-and-bust-now-will-they-listen-to-ravi-batra-by-kendall-anderson/

Truth said...

"Truth is just a boastful ass wildly overestimating his intellectual abilities. To boot he is arrogant and obnoxious as well."

So what, exactly, are you trying to imply?

Anonymous said...

Truth is just a boastful ass wildly overestimating his intellectual abilities. To boot he is arrogant and obnoxious as well.

All forgivable IMO. His complete lack of making any kind of sense whatsoever is what seals the deal for me.

Anonymous said...

"So what, exactly, are you trying to imply?"

That he doesn't know that including "to boot" and "as well" in the same sentence is redundant.

Anonymous said...

The US has just had a sequence of two federal elections returning candidates with a strong Economic Leftist orientation.

Relatively small changes can have huge consequences - small changes caused by people who mostly call themselves political independents. Every shred of data we have shows that independents are the dumbest, least informed voting block in the country - dumber than Republicans, dumber, even, than Democrats.

they work in south africa where 40 million africans extort 5 million europeans.

A group vastly outnumbered and unable to fight back. The United States is still 70% white and a lot of them are dumb rednecks who didn't listen the day the taught Emma Lazarus in class, and who listen to Rush today.

Anonymous said...

The revolution, which he believes could happen in a couple of years or sometime soon after that, should bring in a new chapter of greater economic equality and less poverty and suffering — first in the U.S., then rippling out to the rest of the world, he thinks.

Laughable. But then what can you expect from an ignoracist?

A great deal of what are considered economic or social problems are in fact simply demographic problems. A widespread appreciation of this fact is the kind of "revolution" I want to see. This "Dr" Ravi Batra sounds like some sort of Deepak Chopra peddling "mystic Indian" feel-goodism -- in this case, economic. The saddest thing is for that every one person prepared to acknowledge the demographics keystone, there are probably 10,000 who'll prefer Batra.

My prediction: things will go from bad to much worse. We'll see much less equality, much more poverty and much more suffering. In fact, it's so straightforward it's almost "duh, well of course the sun will rise tomorrow."

Anonymous said...

jody, remember that blacks in south africa are much, much poorer than minorities in america are. we can't support a similar ratio of whites to blacks without drastic declines in the standard of living for somebody. one of the deep causes of this economic crisis is america using debt to maintain a high standard of living with a declining human capital.

Anonymous said...

"So what, exactly, are you trying to imply?"

Exactly what I said. You see you cannot even understand the statement.

Anonymous said...

The country is still living off what whites established pre-1994 and the fact that whites are desperate to keep the place running. Not a good basis for a successful country.

Paging Bono. I'm sure he has a good explanation for all of this that leaves whites in the lurch. Someone phone him at his tax haven in Holland.

Anonymous said...

Mark,
yea, I just want his money. F. all that charity.

Anonymous said...

Who is Dr Ravi Batra?

Personally, I prefer my East Indian fortune teller. He has a bigger fez.

Idiocracy, here we come!

Anonymous said...

Those who are responding to the South Africa post are missing the original poster's point:

The amount of extortion that can go on before a society collapses is astonishingly high. Apply that lesson to the US, and you see that they have only begun to tap the potential for more A.A. and more wealth redistribution.

I thought it was very insightful point, and one that conjures up a scary prospect for our future.

Anonymous said...

one of the deep causes of this economic crisis is america using debt to maintain a high standard of living with a declining human capital.

This is the lie Americans have been fed by the corporate pigs and their puppets in the corporate media. The real reason for the economic crisis is real wages have not risen with productivity gains. It doesn't take a genius to figure out who has made out like bandits from real wages not keeping up with productivity gains since the early 1980's.

Anonymous said...

Instead of the early 80's make that 1973 when the United States became a free trade economy.

Anonymous said...

The amount of extortion that can go on before a society collapses is astonishingly high. Apply that lesson to the US, and you see that they have only begun to tap the potential for more A.A. and more wealth redistribution.

I thought it was very insightful point, and one that conjures up a scary prospect for our future.


What is really scary is that millions of Whites voted for the AA candidate. They didn't impose Obama by force. But now that Obama is in power we can realistically expect that AA will be expanded.

Anonymous said...

Maximilian - The amount of extortion that can go on before a society collapses is astonishingly high. Apply that lesson to the US, and you see that they have only begun to tap the potential for more A.A. and more wealth redistribution.

OK, fair point but what about this.

We can't look at the humbling of white SA without looking at the power of 'world opinion'. Which means the chattering classes of the west plus US military & economic power. They were always at the ready to undermine white SA and to keep them in line even now.

But who watches the watchmen? Where is the greater external power thats going to force American whites to suffer the same fate? Sure some of it can be achieved internally but to the same extent as SA, I'm not sure.

Furthermore if US power declines, whats to stop whites in SA reasserting themselves eventually, when they notice the guard tower is no longer manned?

Anonymous said...

"jody, remember that blacks in south africa are much, much poorer than minorities in america are. we can't support a similar ratio of whites to blacks without drastic declines in the standard of living for somebody."

Yea, but that did not stop basically every avg. white Joe in the US for calling for black government and this very outcome from being instituted in South Africa, mainly through political pressure in the US. I guess what's a no-no for you guys in the US does not apply to the whites who boarded the wrong ships in London or Amsterdam.

Anonymous said...

Furthermore if US power declines, whats to stop whites in SA reasserting themselves eventually, when they notice the guard tower is no longer manned?


Good logic! I'm one of those humiliated by the US and European obsession with standing on the moral high ground.
We always said that we are being humiliated so that Europe and the US do not have to actually go through this pain. Kinda like Jesus dying for our sins, Rhodesians and white South Africans are dying for the sins of racism, segregation, colonialism and slavery committed by the West. Slavery however was mainly a British pursuit in South Africa and never an issue in Rhodesia. I suspect that a decline in the US will coincide with an EU renaissance since the wealthy want their money safe somewhere they can also live. So how will that help? Britain was always the fiercest enemy of the Afrikaner and the Rhodesian whites.

Anonymous said...

judy and Maximilian have this thing right. Of course the political context in the US is on another scale compared to South Africa, but the basic premise that AA-recipients have vast extortion potential in the US stands. It would be interesting to do a quantitative take of the loss in financial well being whites in Rhodesia and South Africa went through. I guess the high-water mark would be Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. Using that as a yard-stick, one could determine the degree of potential shake-down available in the US economy to minorities. Of course there are other variants such as immigration (legal and illegal), white emigration and the declining output as the shakedown express gets underway. But it would be fun to guestimate the potential drawdown of whites in the US using South Africa or Rhodesia as a template. It would be valid too since most whites in the US thought that ending Apartheid was the right thing to do. So why should it not also apply to them?

Anonymous said...

What is really scary is that millions of Whites voted for the AA candidate. They didn't impose Obama by force.

But they did impose him by fraud.

Anonymous said...

The thing that pulled the US out of the Great Depression was WWII socialism.

You're out of your mind. The thing that *caused* the Great Depression was socialism.