NEW FED CHAIRMEN...:

Obama's search for an enemy: The President keep beating the class warfare drum (Michael Goodwin, March 8th 2009, NY Daily News)

Less than half-way through what should be a 100-day honeymoon, the Obama administration is on a war footing. Make that a class-war footing.

Sometimes the targets are critics, including two TV commentators singled out by press secretary Robert Gibbs for faulting the President's bailout plans.

Sometimes the targets are Republicans, like conservative talker Rush Limbaugh, the focus of a plan led by chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to divide the GOP and score points with the Democratic base.

But the tone of the President's own attacks on industry and his spending and tax policies are increasingly worrying Wall Street and much of the business world. With the stock market reaching lows not seen in more than a decade, including a 20% drop since Inauguration Day, headlines like "Obama's bear market" are suddenly routine.

The President dismisses the growing perception he is adding to the economic pain. Asked about the markets, Obama waved them off as like a "tracking poll in politics" that "bobs up and down day to day."

It was a telling moment, for the markets on his watch have moved almost exclusively down. And the 55 million households that hold mutual funds are watching their savings and retirements vanish in great gobs.

Most are decidedly middle class, making them collateral damage of this war.

...always go through a similar process when first appointed, where markets suddenly fluctuate on the basis of mere rhetoric by men who were previously ciphers. President Obama is using class warfare language to appease his Left while he governs as a moderate, but he's so little known that he's scaring the bejeebies out of investors.

MORE:
Obama's economic style is unnerving: Some economists, lawmakers fear policies are sowing uncertainty (Tom Raum, March. 8, 2009, AP)

President Barack Obama offered his domestic-policy proposals as a "break from a troubled past." But the economic outlook now is more troubled than it was even in January, despite Obama's bold rhetoric and commitment of more trillions of dollars.

And while his personal popularity remains high, some economists and lawmakers are beginning to question whether Obama's agenda of increased government activism is helping, or hurting, by sowing uncertainty among businesses, investors and consumers that could prolong the recession. [...]

Many health care stocks are down because of fears of new government restrictions and mandates as part a health care overhaul. Private student loan providers were pounded because of the increased government lending role proposed by Obama. Industries that use oil and other carbon-based fuels are being shunned, apparently in part because of Obama's proposal for fees on greenhouse-gas polluters.

Makers of heavy road-building and other construction equipment have taken a hit, partly because of expectations of fewer public works jobs here and globally than first anticipated.

"We've got a lot of scared investors and business people. I think the uncertainty is a real killer here," said Chris Edwards, director of fiscal policy for the libertarian Cato Institute.

Some Democrats, worried over where Obama is headed, are suggesting he has yet to match his call for "bold action and big ideas" with deeds.

He does need to match the words to the quite minimal deeds.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 8, 2009 7:08 AM