K80, this economy has not hit botton yet and won't likely hit bottom till late spring, early summer! The stock market will dip slightly below 6,500 and unemploymnet will close in on 7%, which 93% of the population will still be working in some capacity.
Neither Barack Obama and or John McCain would have any immediate effect on the state of our economy. This is the long-term effect of congress after congress and President after President spending more than they are taking in. The idea of a congressional budget went out the window starting with President Johnson's war on poverty, in the late 1960's.
The Bush administration ran up the fastest debt in this country's history! You can not fund two wars and a tax & spend policy and at the same time reduce taxes. Try to do that on your home budget! You would be facing bankruptcy in one year!
The Treasury Dept along with the Chairman of the Federal Reserve asked congress for a blank check to re-establish the central banks with working capital. Congress in its hurry to get this done but with no oversight or ground rules pushed this bill through. All the central banks were re-capitalized and were suppose to begin lending money to smaller banks and to the consumer helping retail sales, mfg etc. Instead healthy banks used taxpayer money to buy up banks going out of business. So the 380 billion used to re-capatalize the credit system has been averted to companies like Goldman Sachs, AIG, J.P. Morgan, Wells Fargo and Bank of America. Very little money has been sent out to lending institutions to loan to the consumers! Companies like GE Capital, Jaguar Capital, GMAC capital, Ford Finance can not finance a car to the average consumer because they can't get working capital from the major banks. Ultimately, it has choked retail sales, mfg and the supplementary businesses that support the mfg base in this country.
About 50 billion of this money was to be used to help refinance homes at lower rates. Having people making monthly payments on their homes, thus reducing the drag on the outstanding mortgages. Henry Paulson at the Treasury Dept decided they were "NOT" going to do this! This was a major factor in why many politicians voted to authorize the money to the Treasury dept. It was to ultimately help those losing their homes!
750 billion dollars of tax payer money has been authorized by congress and yet none of the major underlying issues have been addressed! Once this money went out the door and their was no congressional oversight the billions got re-directed to Henry Paulson's ( the former CEO of Goldman Sachs )buddies at Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and AIG.
K80, we will not see any real turn in this economy until at least the third quarter of 2009 and possibly the first quarter 2010. By then the money should work its way through the capital markets and the working capital released to the consumer.
Rick