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john p · Joined: 10 Mar 2006 Posts: 1820

JCK, you're a realist and you handicap what a politican says just based on the nature of the beast.

I think I've been more engaged in politics in the last couple of years so I'm a bit more sensitized and perhaps thin skinned.

Obama told everyone that he wouldn't take money from corporate lobbyists and he lied. He said he wouldn't have lobbyists in his cabinet and he lied. He and other Democrats pushed for campaign finance reform and once he realized he could potentially outspend McCain by a factor of 2-3, he cared less about campaign finance reform guidelines.

Here's the deal, you're right, Obama got a ton more campaign contributions all across the board. The question you have to ask is WHY did all those people give him this money? They gave him this money because he sold himself as this person that he clearly is not.

As a realist, you have to consider that backing up lofty is a burden and those that offer that hope and promise and really don't mean it are really just phony baloneys. Anyone can make empty promises. Think about all those people that donated their money to this guy because they believed him. Just like Deval Patrick, think about how many people knocked on doors for him because he made all these promises he had no idea or plan how to keep. Now that we see the brutal reality we realize that this was just a lightweight who did a bait and switch to just gain power. I know you'll say that all politicans do this, but Obama was a little different, he offered a total change from the ways of doing business and since he's been elected he handed the spending to Pelosi and Reed and they are spending like drunks at an open bar and we've got all kinds of crazy spending and graft and it is actually worse than ever. The abruptness of his "Hopeful" spin to his total doom and gloom and his "I'm going to purge out the lobbyists" to having a significant amount of his picks being red handed guilty of the crimes that he promised to purge us of.

I am by no means happy about the AIG guys getting millions of dollars of bonuses especially the hedge fund guys, but why would AIG give so much to people like Dodd and Obama if they didnt' think that they could provide political cover for them? I want to know who changed the rules to allow for these bonuses! Keep in mind that it was the House Republicans who fought this bailout, the Democrats overwhelmingly voted for the bonuses in this bill. Most never read the final bill...

john p · Joined: 10 Mar 2006 Posts: 1820

How this ties to the housing market relates to people's perception to long term salary growth.

If Obama and Patrick hike up everyone's taxes there is a chance that you'll have less buying power next year, and the year after that. If they torpedo our economy by burdening us with debt companies will have to lay more and more people off. Massachusetts has the highest debt per capita of any State.

These points weigh down on people's long term prospects for earning and make them less inclined to offer well beyond the historical fundamental ratios of price to earnings. In boom years, people were less afraid to spend upwards of 5 times their income because they felt that things would grow through the roof.

Guest · Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 11:28 pm GMT Post subject:

John P, do you know of any links re Ron Paul, is he dirty like the rest? i am trying to believe...

ConcerncedCitizen · Guest

What is your evidence against hedge funds? Did you know that hedge funds discovered the fraud against Enron? Did you know that many hedge funds were complaining / trading against this housing bubble as early as 2003/2004? Can you name a single hedge fund recipient of government aid in the past year, as opposed to most of the banking system? Hedge funds shorted banks, as one should have. What's the problem?
There are thousands of hedge funds so by mathmatics there will problem ones.
How many long only funds like Fidelity etc noticed the housing bubble and traded in any way against it. Of course they didn't because their benchmark told them not to. The value lost by long only money managers doing NOTHING while their bank holdings burned cash on risky endeavous vastly outshadows anything hedge funds have ever done.
BY THE WAY Madoff was not a hedge fund nor was Sanford or Stanford or whatever the guys name was. But the media is so biased against hedge funds that these fraudsters automatically became hedge funds.
Again, I ask everyone on this blog, what did your actively managed mutual fund do for you in the past 2 years? Compare that to John Paulson who shorted everything properly. Responses and opinions welcomed. As you know, I am pretty into hippy green stuff, but I think it's ridiculous how hedge funds are beaten up for no bad behaviour.
And what has private equity ever done? Talk about beta jockeys....

john p · Joined: 10 Mar 2006 Posts: 1820

I've come across some stuff like this..

http://knowledge.wpcarey.asu.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1453

I apologize if I was to general with the term.

I kind of like what I hear about Ron Paul. I need to do more research.

In the end, these guys are politicans so as long as people stay on them and it is in their political best interest to do the right thing, they can be sleazebags and we win. We need to do our part in the "Of the People".

Here's Jon Stuart jumping on Obama for his plan to cut health benefits for wounded veterans.

http://themoderatevoice.com/27210/jon-stewart-rips-obama-on-troop-insurance/

If people didn't jump on Obama, he'd have gone through with this. We need to make impressions on him to make sure he stays on the straight and narrow.

Boston ITer · Guest