ECONOMY CONTINUES TO FALTER, POST BAILOUT...

Even after the passing of the second version of the 700 billion dollar bailout program, what should have been a restoration of the basic economic foundation, faith in the market continues to falter. Many, if not most, economists believed that the bailout became a necessary evil in order to maintain the current structure of the economy.

I am not an economist, market analyst, or market strategist, so I cannot say for certain where the economy will finally settle. I have no idea how far the stock market will continue to fall. I do believe that this will get considerably worse before we begin to see consistent gains in the market.

That being said, the true question remains as to whom we bestow the great honor into who we blame the market faltering. The President? Congress? Wall Street? I can be sure that no one entity can shoulder the blame entirely. The President could have acted sooner, had he had a better supporting cast in his cabinet with more experience in domestic economic issues. Congress let a proposal for oversight of Freddie and Fannie, die on the floor, without even batting an eyelash. Wall Street and Corporate CEO's continued their speculations driving stock prices through the roof, raising the indexes to all time highs (what goes up must eventually come down). The futures market continued it's hearty and healthy speculations. Oil prices, per barrel, soared, keeping Americans worried more about energy and gas bills, forcing them to cut into their other spending.

We all know that when Americans spend less, the overall tax line decreases, forcing pricing to rise to overcome the lack in gain from taxes. It's basic economics. Corporations have to pay their taxes, whether Americans are spending money on their product or not, so to make up the difference the raise the price of their product. When they raise the price of their product, especially if the product is not a necessity but a luxury, sales falter. This in turn starts the selling off of stocks because of lack of faith in the growth of the stock overall. We see it in the market now, GM and Ford are way down, but pharmaceuticals and energies are steady, if not gaining (even if it is slight).

I blame several people here, so let me begin. Corporate CEO's: Had these guys been paying attention to the economy, rather than their bottom line they would have been clued into the decline of American spending. Congress: Oversight into the lending practices should have been passed ... five years ago, if not before. Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac: Thanks for fudging the information so that other lending companies continued to make bad decisions in their lending practices ... (oh by the way, thanks for lying to the politicians too). Americans: Hold on, not every American is to blame ... just the American family that makes an average of 50,000.00 per year, who thought that they could afford a 250,000.00 house without a fixed annual rate. Congress: Thanks for looking out for your constituents on this issue. Had we just listened to a few individuals that spoke up years ago, we could have had some oversight concerning these companies and their spending habits. Instead, they looked out for their own best interests, again.

The markets are going to take a long time to recover, no matter who is in the White House, but it will recover. History has showed us that. So, hang in there.

Jordan Fleck