Obama's 'deal' dupes investors
Turns out the president's 'compromise' with the GOP is just a messy framework that leaves us in limbo.
What were we thinking? That's kind of how I felt getting up this morning. Did we really think President Barack Obama had any party -- his or theirs -- locked up with this "deal"? Did we really think that there wouldn't be dithering and horse trading and delay, delay, delay?
The answer is that "we" were those who believed the president represented his party. Judging by the sell-off after his press conference, those who believed joined those who didn't as we watched a president who doesn't have the juice to get this deal done, at least not within the time frame the market demands right now. Certainly not within the time frame needed to offset worries about further Chinese tightening -- something we'd better get used to, because it is going to happen fairly often until China re-creates a soft-landing scenario.
That's why the big machinery companies didn't maintain their rally. That's why the banks couldn't hold. It's because, hour by hour, people figured out that the "compromise" wasn't really a compromise but some sort of messy framework that will leave us in limbo and therefore send us down, not up, as long as the limbo lasts.
Another disappointment.
It did seem too good to be true, with a pro-growth package that surely meant more hiring and better numbers ahead. I thought the spooking of the bond market meant that the deal was real. I didn't get the decline in gold, and I still don't. I want to buy it as a surrogate currency.
But the notion that we are somehow out of the woods because Obama said we were? Shame on me. I should know better than to expect anything good to come out of Washington. The "good" comes from everything but Washington.
I'd better remember that the next time I sense that something helpful will emanate from this Congress and this president. Now it is back to wait-and-see. It's just not what the market ordered.
Jim Cramer is co-founder and chairman of TheStreet. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO.
Follow Cramer's trades for his Charitable Trust.
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The "good" comes from everything but Washington.
Yet you and CNBC bend over and keep the Obama-ites on their pedestal, unlike OReilly.
I know why! Its because GE needs protection from DOJustice over their working on IRAN projects, not to mention never cleaning up the PCBs in the HUDSON RIVER.
Its time to SHATTER all those multi-nationals into smaller companies that NEED employees.
Think how many jobs were vaporized when banks merged out of communities!
Stand and be counted, or become part of the skeleton entourage in US closets.
Harrumph
the only one DUPED around here is the WRITER OF THIS ARTICLE. YOU KNOW NOTHING!! NOTHING!!!
cramer's political and economic and socio-political knowledge could be bundled up and easily slipped onto the head of a pin. obama had the co jones to come out on national t.v. and eat crow in front of the nation, admit he was wrong and vow to compromise. now that he follows through and alienates the liberal left socialists and the conservative right wing-nuts this guy has only criticism. stick to stocks where all you can do is lose peoples' money and not their basic understanding of prudent political strategy.
The country is chaotic and the main reason is because the media keeps labeling the decisions made by the current administration as either "for the GOP" or "for the Dems." Did you ever think that decisions should be made for the United States of America, which consists of Dems, Repubes, and ever increasingly Independents (thank the gods)?
Hopefully when the old Harvard vs Yale ideology is no longer appreciated by the US consensus, we will let those Yale/Harvard graduates spend all their money for campaigns for President of their respective Universities. Hopefully, the next new President will have graduated from a school for learning (Stanford, MIT, Northwestern, etc...) not monetary prestige.
No offense, Mr. Cramer, at least you put your education to good use.
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