Things don’t look that great.

Things don’t look that great.

For all of Obamas promises his empty slogans and other rhetoric he doesn’t seem to know or is not capable of getting America out of its quagmire. For all the programs and all the incentives and all the bailouts things are still bad, pretty bad. Unemployment is up the housing situation is still grim and the stock market is languishing. What was or is Obama thinking as he continues to pour trillions of seemingly endless money into the economy. Hundreds of thousands of people are about to lose their unemployment benefits and will now be in dire straits. If these people have still managed to somehow keep up their payments up till now then surely the worst is yet to come. They will default on their mortgage and their credit card bills and a mini cycle of crisis in the banks will happen again. Many of these people did not have any type of debt reduction plan and have lived on borrowed money in an irresponsible way.
In a paradox the fact that things are so bad in Europe has mitigated somewhat the troubles in the US. The Euro has been shown to be less stable than the greenback making the dollar and the US economy not look so bad. But this is fleeting and not encouraging news in the long run.
The recent economic news hinting of a double-dip recession has been sobering news but a upcoming election in the US may change things a bit. In almost all the midterm elections people have hoped for better times and put money into the markets. The Republicans are sure to gain from the mire of the American economy and will probably gain many seats in these upcoming elections. Obama looks like a one term disaster that will shuffle off the national scene much as Jimmy Carter did 30 years ago. This changing of presidents and power will encourage investors somewhat. It always has and will continue to do so. The best thing Obama can do is to not do any more damage just to say he will not seek a second term. That would be the best for the US.