the Obama market

The leading editorial in the Wall Street Journal this morning comes out and says it: the new president is making matters worse. 'Americans have welcomed the Obama era in the same spirit of hope the President campaigned on. But after five weeks in office, it's become clear that Mr. Obama's policies are slowing, if not stopping, what would otherwise be the normal process of economic recovery. From punishing business to squandering scarce national public resources, Team Obama is creating more uncertainty and less confidence -- and thus a longer period of recession or subpar growth.' At left, WSJ's chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since Mr Obama was elected. Except for a New Year's bump, it's been pretty much straight down. To be sure, there wasn't much he could do about economic conditions for the first couple of months, but did he have to use the terms 'catastrophe' and 'lost decade' quite so often? Blue skies! -- Dan Ford