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Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review May 19, 2009 / 25 Iyar 5769

When will Obama own the recession?

By Dick Morris & Eileen Mc Gann


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | When will the economy stop dropping because of the recession and start dropping because of the harm Obama's cure to the recession is inflicting? There will likely be a seam that will run through the polling and recession statistics in the next few months when the symptoms of the disease abate and those triggered by Obama's program begin to kick in. In short, when will the Bush recession become the Obama recession? In fact, it may already have happened.


Obama's popularity and the economic statistics fell, pretty much in tandem from his inauguration until early April. During this period, unemployment rose by two points, consumer confidence fell, and over 2 million jobs were destroyed. Over the same term, the president's approval ratings (as measured daily by Scott Rasmussen - www.rasmussenreports.com) fell from a post-inaugural level of 65% to 55%.


Then both the economy and the president's approval ratings started to climb. The former was fueled by pre-mature claims that consumer spending was rising (it turned out to be only a January post-Christmas blip) and that jobless claims were falling (they resumed their upward march in May). The stock market, impelled more by wishful thinking than by mature analysis, had its first positive month in April and optimism spread.


This good economic news combined with media hype about Obama's first hundred days and helped push his ratings back up over 60%.


But now both the economy and Obama are back on a downward trend. Could it be that the false dawn of late April was the seam we are awaiting? Could it have been the moment when the economy did what it would always naturally do and begin its recovery only to have the momentum squashed by Obama's policies?


Perhaps it was. But whether it was or not, the moment is likely to come when the after-effects of the cure overcome the recovery from the economic disease.


The signs of a negative economic reaction to Obama's program are already quite visible. Interest rates on ten year Treasury bills have risen by 50% since January in anticipation of the coming bout with inflation. Capital has been diverted wholesale from new businesses into channels that do the economy no good. The treasury's debt is soaking up funds. So is the sale of toxic assets from banks. The demands for capital set in motion by Obama's spending spree and his bank bailout plans are already blocking investment in economic growth.


Then, last week, in a breath-taking demonstration of presidential chutzpah, the president warned that the deficit (which he caused) is growing too large and that inflation (as a result of his policies) might be looming ahead. His peroration was likely to prepare the way for tax increases. Just as Reagan drove down taxes while increasing military spending and then used the resulting deficit to stymie liberal spending plans, Obama is increasing spending and the deficit to force tax increases.


But the president's belated recognition of the damage of his policies is scant compensation for the havoc they will increasingly cause.


And, at some point, soon, the public will get it that we are now in a recession caused by Obama's programs not by the shocks of 2008. His ratings will probably resume their stately descent and sink further. The key moment, of course, will be when his presidential approval score drops below his vote share of 52%. At that point, he is shedding votes and the political impact becomes serious.


Whether we have entered this phase or the seam has yet to come, the transition from the Bush recession to the Obama recession will be an historic moment with huge political consequence for this Administration.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.


JWR contributor Dick Morris is author, most recently, of "Fleeced: How Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Media Mockery of Terrorist Threats, Liberals Who Want to Kill Talk Radio, the Do-Nothing Congress, Companies ... Are Scamming Us ... and What to Do About It". (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.) Comment by clicking here.



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