Obama's 100 Days; Business By The Numbers

Back in March, President Obama played Wall Street analyst, telling the American public that "buying stocks is a potentially good deal."

Well, the Huffington Post wanted to see how Obama's financial predictions have played out. So, to mark his 100 days in office, we've taken a look back at just a few of the cold hard numbers.

So far, the results have been mixed.

The Dow has gone from 7,949.09 on Jan. 20, the day of Obama's inauguration, to 8,016.95 as of Tuesday's close. While this is a 0.9 percent increase, it would likely have been much worse if not for the stock rebound spurred by the banks' questionable first-quarter profits.

Still, it was just around the time that Obama suggested buying into the market that stocks began their upward climb.

Another useful metric to measure business health is the price of gold. Since the days of the gold standard, the yellow metal has been considered a safe haven by investors. When its price rises, it is often a sign that investors are looking for a safe place to park their capital.

Since Obama took office, gold prices have increased 4.4 percent, going from $853.25 an ounce on Jan. 20 to $891 an ounce as of Tuesday.

As gold prices rise, the value of the dollar often declines. Obama's 100 days is a case in point: $1 can now buy 0.769704 Euros, compared with 0.773395 Euros on Jan. 20, a 0.5 percent drop.

It is also useful to look at the yield on Treasury bonds, or the debt issued by the government. As the price of a Treasury bond drops because demand is weak due to perceived risk, the yield rises. In this case, the yield on the 10-year Treasury was 3.05 percent on Tuesday. On Jan. 20, it was just 2.40 percent.

WATCH:

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Back in March, President Obama played Wall Street analyst, telling the American public that "buying stocks is a potentially good deal."
Well, the Huffington Post wanted to see how Obama's financial predictions have played out. So, to mark his 100 days in office, we've taken a look back at the cold hard numbers. So far, the results have been mixed.

Comments

[mollyjackson]

We're talking about individual prosperity and success, and Obama's talking about government programs. I don't know about you, folks, but I haven't needed a government program for my success.

[Budokan]

Eat it, Republikans. This is what a successful presidency looks like. Something other than your little gibbering gibbon whom you marched in lockstep behind right over a cliff.

http://kennethmarkhoover.com

[Photofarm]

So let me see, you still have over have the country thinking the country is not going in the right direction. According to Gallup polls, Reagan, Clinton, and both Bush's had higher approval ratings after 100 days in office.

So I'm sure calling this a successful presidency is not exactly looking at all the facts.

[LooktotheLeft]

You know what.... after daily horror, pain, and anguish for eight endless years, every day under Obama's watch is pure, unadulterated euphoria. Let the armchair QB's and whining critics be d*amned

[Servility]

Except for that unfortunate fly over by AF1 in NYC...

[PhilipTaylor]

These people have taken so much of the Profits from their banks the Banks are Bankrupt!

These people who in 1980 made 20 times the average worker NOW MAKE 400 Times the Avg Worker!

Remember $10 to $100 Million Christmas Bonuses on top of $10 to $50 Million salaries!

They ruined their OWN Banks and want to continue while WE the taxpayers Bail their Banks OUT!

THEY RUINED THEIR OWN BANKS!

[PhilipTaylor]

WALL STREET HAS FAILED CAPITALISM - TIME TO HONOR ITS PRINCIPLES!

Definition of Capitalism: An economic system for producing wealth ....without force or fraud...private rights are protected by the rule of law of a regulatory framework.­...legisla­tive action defines and enforces the basic rules of the market. [edited down from Wikipedia]

1. Notice nothing about Taxpayer BAILING OUT the corporations who want wealth at any cost!
2. "Without...FRAUD" and clearly investigations of the WS Banks are needed
3. Rule of Law - They should be investigated and prosecuted
4. Regulatory Framework - Dismantled by Summers, Clinton, Gramm, Bush, and Wall Street
5. Legislative Action - Wall Street gave Congress $5 Billion to buy Votes over last ten years
__________­__________­________

BODY of EVIDENCE is against Geithner/Obama Plan!

How many more intelligent people have to line up against Geithner programs of dumping endless amounts of money into zombie banks, before they APPLY far more tested and wise procedures?

Problems:

1. Far more debts than FED can print money to overcome
2. Far more debt than we should put on books of Taxpayers
3. Far too much corruption in System, remove FAILED Management!
4. Savings&Loan Solution worked as did Swedish approach, so why "nurse banks along" like Japan's FAILURE in their "LOST DECADE?"
5. What is motivation for Geithner Plan? It addresses very small part of $Trillions while costing Taxpayer, FED, and Draining the FDIC!

Far more productive TARP Use is gently bankrupting Zombies instead of a DROP in an OCEAN of Debt!

[metalpipe]

3. Far too much corruption in System, remove FAILED Management!

These men and women come from an age devoted to living and learning in our present screwed up system. Their replacements will likely behave the same way. Carefully crafted laws, strict enforcement and devoted, non-partisan oversite is the only way to begin the economic healing. Increasing the prison population is great for a quick fix of vengence, but in the end has been proven to accomlish nothing in the way of changing social behavior.

[Scott Baker]

Obama came as close to picking a bottom in the stock market as any of the so-called Market Experts, including crammer, who was pretty close himself, but who has called bottoms all along a stair step downwards for the last year and a half. Gold is going up because of fears of inflation and how could there be otherwise with record infusions of fiat money into the economy? If Obama can wrench the economy away from the bubble-headed bankers (in both senses of the term), then great, but I see little evidence of it so far. We need a new form of capitalism for the 21 century based on Geonomics - tax what you burn, not what you earn, in Al Gore's parlance. Or, as Henry George said 130 years ago, Tax the non-manmade resources such as land, oil and (more recently) pollution, but untax production in the form of wages and true capital to increase production and decrease use of scarce resources. BTW, the fossil fuel companies should be paying US for their use of oil/coal/NG, not the other way around. The resources belong to all of us; the profits from their development and distribution belong to those who made them.

[lvtfan]

Hear! Hear!!

[ekoorb]

A 10 year Treasury is a note, not a bill.

[SaltySaltillo]

Down here, the price of oil is a key economic indicator. I wonder why this was overlooked.
More to the point, let's compare Bush's last 100 days to Obama's first 100. I think then we would see how stable things have been since Jan. We may be flatlining right now, but at least we are not freefalling any more.

[metalpipe]

True, but I'm not seeing any behavior that is sustainable. We can't go back to the unrestrained borrowing and spending, and irresponsible use of fossil fuels continues. We are in a kind of holding pattern. I think we need more pain before the light bulb turns on and we realize that alternative energy, single payer health care, nuclear non-proliferation, and controlling the surface population of this planet are priorities.

When I start seeing country wide use of monorail systems, organic/local produce dominate at Safeway stores, and the yearly budget for the military and education flip flopped, I will begin to have faith we have a chance at surviving into the 22nd century.

[SaltySaltillo]

Reality check for metalpipe: it has been 100 days. As in, 3 months and a week. Relax already. There will be health care reform during this presidency. There will be energy policy reform during this presidency. I cannot say that there will be surface-po­pulation-c­ontrol on the planet during this presidency, though... sorry. Hate to break it to you but that whole "populatio­n-control" thing has never gone over too well in the past.

[Underwater09]

Yeah 100 days is nothing. Long term investment means for... years. I do not think Obama meant a couple news cycles as "long term"

[PhilipTaylor]

He and his Team as still NOT addressing the ROOT of the Problem, "NO CREDIT FLOWS" to Main Street!

They have PUMPED $12,800,000,000,000 into Wall Street by almost nothing to Main Street other than a few half-baked low funded complicated programs that take forever to work!

Wall Street OWNS the TEAM and it shows!

Direct funding of a Government Bank that loans directly to Main Street over the Internet at low rates and fees would solve this problem. Even putting a couple $Trillion into local Community Banks and Local Credit Unions would be far more productive.

Instead we see another small program for second mortgages that will take forever to happen!

Wall Street OWNS the TEAM and CONGRESS! Main Street is D00MED to SUFFER!

OBAMA WAKE UP!

[metalpipe]

As much as I love my president, I have to agree.

[Viper]

What a stupid article as if Obama 's act in the first 30 days or 60 days could have any effect on changing the direction the largest economy in the world which was trending for the past 14 months ... down, down, down....

Some how the article states since in March when Obama said buy stock how has he done... well he picked the bottom for now and since then it went up 25%.


Who writes this dripple... ?

He is president, not a magician! And this is one very big mess. And the undrlying cuase is deindustrialization and trade deficits which will take 20 years to cure. And thats only if we our commited to buying more of what we make... and move to fair/balanced trade and have national healthcare and a valued added tax and scrap the nonsense of free trade, which no one else practices..


Regards

[SaltySaltillo]

What? He isn't a magician?

[RJII]

i don't care about this 100 day marker--not in this case.

[LeeCalif]

We do not have much longer because of President Obama's continuation of Bush's policies.

http://ianmasters.org/ian_masters_040509_24.mp3

[pdxist]

Er, that's 125%. Calculator error. Human saw it looked funny.

[pdxist]

This is total nonsense. Obama timed the market almost perfectly. He suggested buying stocks on March 3, two days before the market's bottom. The Dow closed at 6,726.02 on March 3, today it closed at 8,016.95, a 19% increase in 56 days, or an annualized rate of 777%. Pretty lucky.

[LeeCalif]

baloney.

http://ianmasters.org/ian_masters_040509_24.mp3

[pdxist]

I'm not going to listen to that whole thing for you, but I scanned through it, and at no point was the topic related to what I said. I corrected the 777% figure in the next post (you can't respond to your own posts), but the other data points are verifiable. Can you actually write out what you don't like?