"Obama Defies Pessimists as Rising Economy Converges With Stocks"

[Clio the Leo]

Obama Defies Pessimists as Rising Economy Converges With Stocks

By Mike Dorning

March 10 (Bloomberg) -- The political consensus may be that President Barack Obama’s handling of the economy has been weak. The judgment of money in all its forms has been overwhelmingly positive, and that may be the more lasting appraisal.

One year after U.S stocks hit their post-financial-crisis low on March 9, 2009, the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has risen more than 68 percent, and it’s up more than 41 percent since Obama took office. Credit spreads have narrowed. Commodity prices have surged. Housing prices have stabilized.

“We’ve had a phenomenal run in asset classes across the board,” said Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist for Miller Tabak & Co. in New York. “If he was a Republican, we would hear a never-ending drumbeat of news stories about markets voting in favor of the president.”

The economy has also strengthened beyond expectations at the time Obama took office. The gross domestic product grew at a 5.9 percent annual pace in the fourth quarter, compared with a median forecast of 2.0 percent in a Bloomberg survey of economists a week before Obama’s Jan. 20, 2009, inauguration. The median forecast for GDP growth this year is 3.0 percent, according to Bloomberg’s February survey of economists, versus 2.1 percent for 2010 in the survey taken 13 months earlier.

“You have to give them -- along with the Federal Reserve - - a lot of credit,” said Joseph Carson, director of economic research at AllianceBernstein LP in New York. “A year ago, there was panic, as well as concern. And a lot of the expectations were not only that we were going to have declines in activity but they would stretch all the way to 2010, if not 2011.”

Job Losses Ease

Since then, monthly job losses have abated, from 779,000 during the month Obama took office to 36,000 last month. Corporate profits have grown; among 491 companies in the S&P 500 that reported fourth-quarter earnings, profits rose 180 percent from a year ago, according to Bloomberg data. Durable goods orders in January were up 9.3 percent from a year earlier. Inflation is tame, and long-term interest rates remain low.

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[JTFrog]

1. K&R

[Donnachaidh]

2. notice how the *key* is always *corporate profit*?

And the unemployment figures get so finessed by this administration it's almost like a flashback to shrub's tactics. When are the going to stop releasing those figures -- like they are not releasing the job outsourcing figures? I'll bet dollars to donuts someone in Rahm's office is figuring out how to lose the unemployment figures in the run up to the November elections.

Change we can believe in? REALLY? :sarcasm: :rofl:

[Clio the Leo]

3. "Durable goods orders in January were up 9.3 percent from a year earlier..."

You know, like washing machines, furniture ... DVD Players .... things we plebes buy.

However, cherries .... like ones picked from trees or .... message board postings are NOT considered "durable."

[n2doc]

6. How many were imported?

Helping China's economy recover isn't exactly what America is looking for.

[Moosepoop]

7. None.

Bloomberg's numbers come from a U.S. Census Bureau report. The report is for domestic manufacturing.

[vaberella]

9. And **crickets** is all that is heard. ^_^ n/t

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

11. I'm sorry, but not everyone can be employed by governments and non-profits.

Some of us have to work for corporations, which means that someone has to care about profits.

[rfranklin]

4. Seventeen or eighteen million unemployed (official figures)

doesn't sound like a recovery or a "rising economy" to me.

[phleshdef]

5. Thats why no one asked you and instead asked someone informed on the topic.

[rfranklin]

14. The problem is that I am informed...

Perhaps you could read the unemployment reports.

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/02/05-1

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

12. Yeah, because 17 million jobs are going to be created all at once.

:sarcasm:

[Cha]

8. Yeah President Obama and Team are

plowing along do their job while the whiners whine and the liars lie.

[vaberella]

10. Interesting. I haven't seen a Summers and Giethner bash thread in a while. n/t

[GeorgeGist]

13. Fooled again ...

shame on you, Clio.

[Spheric]

15. Damn, I needed some good news. I was really worried...

that borrowing trillions with a 't' from our kids and grandkids and pumping it into the bubble might not be enough to re-inflate it.

And another 36,000 joined the ranks of the unemployed last month. That is certainly good news.

It just goes on and on. Corporate profits have grown by another 180% off those trillions we borrowed. Woohoo!! Ain't life grand?

Only one in eight homes are either in foreclosure or in financial difficulty. Does it get any better than that?

And as for interest rates, how great is it that banks can borrow money at zero interest and then lend it out at better than 30%. I see a very bright future there.

I am so glad we have put our financial worries behind us. :sarcasm:

It takes a special kind of whacked out view of things to be able to spin this mess as positive, or to think we are currently strengthening our economy.

[ShortnFiery]

16. Yeah, it's "The Greatest Dog and Pony Show on Earth."

And you're buying it. :(

[MannyGoldstein]

17. Largest Banker Bonuses Ever - And Obama's Only in Office One Year!!!

Think what the future holds - it's breathtaking!