President Barack Obama doesn’t care about your 401k or your precious IRA. As he said Tuesday, “the market bobs up and down day to day, and if you worry about that, you’re probably going to get your long term strategy wrong.” Displaying his vast lack of financial knowledge, he also stated that stocks are “potentially a good deal” because “profit and earning ratios are starting to get to the point where buying stocks is a potentially good deal if you’ve got a long-term perspective on it.” Of course, P/E ratios, which stands for price to earnings and measures a stocks relative value (literally the value of all outstanding stock divided by the annual earnings) have been going down, but the reason stock prices are more than the earnings is because investors factor in anticipated earnings. Therefore, the stock market isn’t just a barometer of the current economic situation, but also a measure of the perceived future of the economy. And unfortunately for Obama, the market hasn’t fluctuated since he won the election in November. It has tanked. I wonder if he’s noticed? After all, why would he refer to the stock market being down 30% since his election as “market fluctuation”? Isn’t that a slap in the face to everyone with a retirement savings plan? Calling 200 point drops in the DJI average every other day “market fluctuation” is like calling a bank robbery “asset fluctuation” or referring to the Minnesota Timberwolves’ season as “record fluctuation.” It reflects either a lack of understanding of the serious nature of the problem, a callous disregard or ignorance of how it affects investors (including just about everyone with an IRA, 401k or any stocks or mutual funds) or maybe, just maybe he is aware of all of this but just doesn’t care. There’s one thing I want to make abundantly clear here: I am not one to impune the motives of those who I disagree with, no matter how vehement the disagreement. I believe that Barack Obama wants the best for his country. I don’t think that Obama is “a radical communist.” I don’t even think he’s a fascist, despite his fascist tendencies and several blogs I might have written with Obama and fascist in the title. I believe that he believes he knows what’s best for this country, and probably thinks he could help you run your life a little better. And what’s best for this country? Less money for the rich, he can spend it better than they can. Don’t worry, all you demonized yacht and private jet manufacturers, your bailout is coming soon. And don’t worry charities who are losing large donations because of higher taxes on the rich and limited tax deductions for donations. The government can do it better than you. Besides, the government doesn’t have to ask for donations, it just has to raise your taxes. But this is also why I say President Barack Obama doesn’t care about your IRA. Because he doesn’t care about the stock market. The stock market is simply for the independently wealthy and if they lose money, who cares? And Barack Obama has previously indicated that the health of the economy isn’t as important as fairness. It is more important to bring the rich down than for everyone to do better. This is what he said a little over a year ago while on the campaign trail. “[W]hat I’ve said is that I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness. We saw an article today which showed that the top 50 hedge fund managers made $29 billion last year — $29 billion for 50 individuals. And part of what has happened is that those who are able to work the stock market and amass huge fortunes on capital gains are paying a lower tax rate than their secretaries. That’s not fair.” He later stated how he didn’t want to raise our national debt (a lame excuse for raising taxes if there ever were one, and obviously untrue). This was in reaction to a question about how cutting capital gains taxes helps the economy. And he did not bother to disagree with this statement, though he didn’t agree either. The point he made is very clear, however. It isn’t fair to make too much money, and if cutting your taxes helps the economy it doesn’t matter, because fairness is more important. This is the tyranny of socialism. This is the contradiction of so-called progressivism. Equality trumps economic progress. Equality of results is favored over equality of opportunity. So, if those super wealthy lost billions and the average joe just thousands, this is a win in Barack Obama’s mind. Bringing those on the top down is at least as or more important than bringing those on the bottom up. And those on the bottom? Don’t worry, that’s what the government’s there for.
