[quote]ZEB wrote:
[quote]Bambi wrote:
[quote]dk44 wrote:
[quote]Bambi wrote:
[quote]ZEB wrote:
I think we can all admire Obama for keeping his word. He said he was going to bring change and he did!
[/quote]
Do you believe that Obama had any major role in causing this rout? Please explain your reasoning.[/quote]
Do you believe he didn’t? Please explain your reasoning.
[/quote]
This is for Zeb as well
I asked because I am unaware of the intricacies of US fiscal policy - coverage here in the UK is simplistic, biased, and it is hard to find a reliable source. I do not think Obama has a clean pair of hands; on the contrary I think he is powerless. While his policies may have exacerbated a decline, I do not believe they are single-handedly responsible.
The reason? Look globally. All across the world this week there have been catastrophic falls in world stock market. In Germany, where they passed a stimulus package which helped small businesses and are generally considered to have the best economy in Europe, stocks are down massively. In the UK, where they passed a stimulus and have since then adopted stringent austerity policies - something many have since emulated - the FTSE is down 10%. This is true of countries all over the world with varying fiscal situations, who have had stimuli focusing on small business or no stimulus, who have passed austerity measures or not. Nowhere is a safe haven. Hell, Italy keeps passing austerity measures like they’re going out of fashion and it’s not doing anything. This is not just Europe, but the Asian markets. Hell, the Brazilian market on Thursday and South African markets had awful days.
What I’m saying is this is a global financial crisis, where many eurozone countries in particular, some with massive economies (Italy is the seventh biggest exporter in the world) are running the risk of default, which could help tip the economies back into recession. Added to the risk of countries, there is a fear of paralysis in the European bank markets (Lloyds TSB fell 10% yesterday and though I don’t have figures to hand of today, I’m sure they fell by a substantial margin again). And to expect the USA to ignore this and come out unscathed is extremely optimistic, to say the least regardless of the fiscal policies their government pursues.
There’s my reasoning[/quote]
The rest of the guys have refuted you nicely. I’ll just add that trying to let Obama out of his horrible fiscal policies by blaming the rest of the world is weak…Very WEAK.[/quote]
Where have I been refuted? I am not ‘letting him off’. If the Eurozone was booming, demand in Asia up and the USA slumping, I’d say yes, the USA is in its position as a result of Obama’s poor fiscal policies. But the Dow has slumped while more or less every financial market has done so as well.
Let me put it to you another way. The EU as a bloc exports more than any other country in the world, including China. Combined, its economies are greater than any other nation and it is currently undergoing a crisis unseen in the last 80 years of financial activity. Do you really think that the all-too-possible demise of its third largest member Italy, who, by itself, nearly exports half a trillion dollars worth of items per year, of whose banks most big European countries (UK France, Germany) and, of course the USA have sizeable holdings in debt will pass America by in some way? Do you not think that systemic financial paralysis of Europe, and the potential financial default of the world’s eighth and twelfth largest economies is affecting and will continue to affect America’s financial market at all?