FDR and BHO: It's The Obamaconomy, Stupid!

[Brad Benoit]

That Change is Hope

“My Friends,” for years now the pundits have told you “we’re in a recession! We’re in a recession! We’re all gonna die!” For years they’ve been wrong. Completely, utterly, and terribly wrong. But now they’re right.

I’m here to tell you why they’re right, why the problem isn’t as bad as it seems, and why it will all get better soon.

In the 1920s, this country was one huge party. We had just come out of World War I with a shiny new title: “World Power.” So then the 20’s came roaring into the history books, bringing with them a culture of “credit.” This “Culture of Credit” basically means that people were using money they didn’t have to buy more than they could afford.

Sound familiar?

The similarities between the “First Great Depression” and our current economic situation are striking. But this is not and will not become the Second Great Depression. Yes, we have been spending money we didn’t have to buy things we couldn’t afford. But that was Bill Clinton’s housing bubble. That was not a nationwide buildup of an unsustainable debt. Yes, for the last eight years we have had a president who, just like Herbert Hoover, did nothing in the vain hope that the market would fix itself. But our slow decline due to “Trickle-Down Economics,” 9/11, and the War in Iraq was not the almost overnight collapse of Wall Street in late October of 1929, which continued into the early 1930s.

But the problem did not start with the Crash itself. The Crash happened because of the “Culture of Credit.” People borrowed more and more money that could never be repaid. Even the Banks were borrowing money that simply didn’t exist. That’s the fundamental problem with a credit system: just because somebody promises to pay you back doesn’t mean they can.

Eventually, we realized the inconvenient truth—the money wasn’t real. When people actually needed money, it wasn’t there. All of their investments crumbled to dust. Their savings vanished when banks simply shut down. People fell into overwhelming debt. There just wasn’t any money there.

Herbert Hoover’s legacy was forever tainted by that same mentality George W. Bush has shown us for the last eight years: if it’s not my fault, it’s not my problem to deal with. Hoover believed the market could fix itself. He was wrong. The market continued to plummet lower and lower; the DOW went down around 89% between its peak on September 3, 1929 and its lowest point on July 8, 1932.

The market turned around in 1932 for the same reason it will turn around sometime later this year, around 6-9 months from now if my AP Economics teacher is right. Something happened in 1932 that allowed the economy to come back to life: a candidate for the presidency campaigned on the notion of better days to come, promising Americans a “New Deal” that would save us from the brink and prevent this from ever happening again. His name was Franklin D. Roosevelt, and his inspiration of hope saved us from our economic collapse.
Hope is still alive.

Like it or not, Barack Obama is now officially the 44th president of the United States. He campaigned on the promise of Change, the prospect of better days ahead, and the audacity of hope.

He, like FDR, was elected by a definitive majority by a populace that was sick of the previous administration. He put together perhaps the most diverse staff we have ever seen, fulfilling his promise of “Not a Red America and a Blue America, but a United States of America.” He put together a team of brilliant economic minds that even the best of the FOX NEWS team can’t tear apart.

What Barack Obama said on a perfectly clear night in Chicago in November in front of his teary-eyed supporters was true: “Change has come to America.” That Change is Hope.

Democrat or Republican, Liberal or Conservative, you cannot dispute one simple thing about President Obama: he inspires more people than any political figure in memory, and it is this sense of hope that will bring us back to economic prosperity.

Take a look at this poll:

What makes this poll interesting is that even though we face the worst economic crisis since the First and Only Great Depression and a continuing decline, the January 2008 numbers show a substantial increase in optimism since April 2008. What’s the difference? Hope.

So what does all this “hope” stuff actually have to do with the economy, you ask?

Well, “my friends,” there is a number in the United States Economy that is, at least in my opinion, more important than any other. Even the GDP. This All-Powerful number is called the CCI: the Consumer Confidence Index.

Let me start by saying that Consumers make up 70% of the U.S. Economy. That means what we Consumers do is unbelievably important. As Consumers, we have a habit of buying more goods when the economy is fine, and trying to lock away our money to save it when we think things are bad. The trouble starts when those pundits on television are convincing you that the economy is bad when in reality there’s nothing wrong with it.

When that happens, like it has been for the last few years, people don’t want to spend money. Then there isn’t as much money coming into the economy. As demand shrivels away, the GDP suffers, and after a while the economy actually does get bad.

To give you some idea why the economy got so bad recently, look at this:

Interesting, isn’t it? This is why Consumer Confidence is by far the best way to predict where the economy is headed. When people think it’s bad, it gets bad. Similarly, when people think everything is going to be OK, the smoke clears, and everything gets right back to where it should be. It will take time, but it will happen. That’s why Barack Obama will fix the economy even if all his policies amount to nothing.

Hope itself will save us.

Roosevelt’s New Deal was virtually meaningless. All of his new government programs and all of his fancy new economic safeguards did nothing useful. But after years of a president who did nothing at all, somebody was actually doing something.

The Change President Obama brings may amount to nothing more than hope. But that’s all we need.

My AP Econ teacher, who is a Conservative, said recently—with a great deal of sarcasm—“on January 21st, all of them are going to change their tune. Don’t worry. Everything is going to be great, because Jesus Christ has come again.”

So for now, pundits, your turn is over. Now it’s time to sit back, relax, and enjoy eight glorious years of President Superman.

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

[Chris Portela]

a Quick read makes me think. Finally brad... but then I read a little more and I'm like... noo brad common man I thought you were better than this. lol
Brad your on the right track, but you’re not considering all the factors. Consumer confidence is strong when the economy is strong. Falsifying Consumer confidence is SUPER bad because its going to eventually crash to reality of the REAL consumer confidence level. You get that level up with a strong economy with a Capitalist economy that is free to work. Less bureaucracy and overall less government.

What we are seeing happen is the crashing of a centralized bank system. All across the world no matter what kind of government its the same problems because of centralized banks. You might think citi bank and other competing banks means that its multiple banks. That’s not what the term means though. Centralized banks are banks who basically control the economy to "prevent recessions and depressions" by literally making up interest rates and other parts of the economy. Centralized banking is, I'm sorry to say, a Socialist idea. This combined with CRA,(created by Jimmy carter and modified by bill Clinton, which caused this credit problem in the first place) the factors you stated, and some more that are out there the economy has hit a down turn.

I hope you were enlightened with knowledge and understand it’s not just consumer confidence and its going to take a lot more to fix the economy. Obama's honeymoon (Period in a presidency when his ratings are always high because of optimism or whatever. Bill Clinton is good example of a president with an extraordinarily long honeymoon) will end soon and those opinions stated will change. Even if ever so slowly.
I think that’s enough. And sorry for not commenting earlier I was about to but things came up when I was writing up my comment.