2009 started off with Barack Obama taking over as President of the United States. His first priority was to push through the infamous “stimulus bill” which was an absolute disaster of a piece of legislation, with $800 billion in special interest payoffs and an overall horrific allocation of capital.
In 2009, the markets bottomed in March and went on an historic rally that brought stock markets around the world well off their lows. The rise in markets was correlated with stimulus spending by governments around the world and central bank quantitative easing policies. The flood of cash into the system went into equities sending them higher and higher.
Unfortunately, the economy continued to deteriorate. In the name of nominal GDP growth, leaders have sacrificed more of the productive economy. Instead of getting out of the way of the market-based economic engine to do its thing, the leaders have latched on more anchors to slow its progress forward. GDP growth has not measured accurately the soundness of our economy – instead it measures how much we are in debt and how much crap we buy.
As 2009 came to a close, the leaders began to tout their successes simply because the stock market was higher. Unfortunately unemployment was still hovering around the 10% level (official number) – and the unofficial number was probably in the 15%-20% range.
Those of us who haven’t been drinking the kool-aid have seen through the stock market rally and see the ever-widening cracks in the American economy. Unfortunately, the debts are higher and the American people are in worse shape as a result of 2009. The economic depression continues.