Message to Obama

US brokers are full of gloom, some talking about the S&P futures bouncing off 666 last Friday, others saying the stockmarket could still halve. Here's an excerpt from James Meyer at Tower Bridge Advisors today:

"Today people are locked in fear. They are more fearful today than they were last fall when Lehman Brothers failed. They are fearful because their home values are falling and their 401k’s are collapsing. They are fearful that they won’t have a job. They worry that their money isn’t safe. And they are just plain fearful of the unknown.

President Obama’s number one job today is to overcome that fear. He needs to state in no uncertain terms the following and he needs to set policy to back up each of the statements below:
1. He needs to start by assuring every American that their money is safe. Not just $250,000 safe; the whole thing.
2. He needs to tell Americans that the Government will insure the integrity of the banking system. Yes, some banks will fail, but the banking system will not.
3. He needs to convince Americans that the Government will take aggressive steps to save jobs and save homes.
4. He needs to stop telling us that he inherited a mess and that things will get worse before they get better.
5. He needs to stop tossing around blame.

The President is our leader. Franklin Roosevelt’s most quoted line is that “We have nothing to fear but fear itself”. The stock market bottomed in early 1933 and went up for the next 3+ years even as the Great Depression continued. Why? Because he instilled optimism. In 1936, after suffering through 4 years of the worst depression of the century, Roosevelt got reelected in a landslide. There isn’t an American alive who doesn’t know that Obama didn’t create this mess and we all know the medicine will take time to heal our wounds. But we all want hope, and the only person to deliver that message is Obama himself."