A defeat of health care on Sunday could be disastrous for stocks and it has nothing to do with whether health care reform is good or bad.
Rather, a defeat would mean that the president has been fatally wounded, politically. That means it would be doubtful that he could pass a single legislative initiative in the remainder of his term. The nation would be left essentially without a leader. It's tremendously destabilizing and the markets would react accordingly.
The saddest thing about your comment is it appears that you're implying that we should pass a bad health care reform just to save the market's advance.
ReplyDeleteThe market's valuation is based upon (IMHO) a lot of bogus, off sheet accounting and questionable financial games today anyways.
I would much rather see STOCKS fall than be stuck with a life sentence of poor health care policies.
I will recover from falling stocks but bad health care is like a new permanent & ever increasing tax that will most likely be manipulated "for the worse" every year until eternity.
The more the government involves itself in any facet of our economy (life), the more the foundation of that entity becomes like quicksand. You can forget about the predictability of managing it year to year.
No doubt serious changes in how our health care system functions, adjustments in attitudes about what is owed & and who bear the cost is needed. I don't think spending a year plus on something that is 17% of our economy (UPI.com) is encompassing enough of the problem/solution equation with special interests in overdrive will fix our problems, just change our problems. Politicians are not experts in most areas that they try to legislate but they do follow the money----quite well I might add.
This country has a tendency to NOT address the root & true causes of its problems........nothing has changed here this time again.
Brantley,
ReplyDeleteAgree this healthcare proposal is a disaster.
But I did not interpret it that way, Mike is just pointing out the facts of the situation. Obama would be "wounded".
The big bogey out there this year is a State default. (think Cali, IL, NY). If such a thing is imminent, in this current political situation where the deficit "errorists" are in control, it will take a powerful executive initiative to lead a Federal "bailout" of the state. If Obama is not up to it, we could be looking at a situation like when Paulson negligently let Lehman go down in late 2008....look out below!
Resp,