Finally after five straight down days for the Dow Jones Industrial Average ( [1]DJIA), it rallied back 149 points to finish at 6,875 on March 4.
Was it just a bear market rally or were investors starting gain a little confidence in financial markets? CNBC “The Kudlow Report “ host Larry Kudlow had Jeff Macke, founder and president of Macke Asset Management on his March 4 program and asked if the rally, along with other indicators might be signs of a recovery. Macke, a co-host of CNBC’s “Fast Money” said he wasn’t impressed and blamed President Barack Obama.
“It would if not for an administration that has created a country full of 330 million people who all want to make $249,000 a year, less they want to become one of the ‘wealthy,’ who apparently the government hates,” Macke said. “If this administration can get their act together and be pro-business to support the idea of success instead of penalizing it – that would be one thing that would get me excited.”
Macke echoed a similar sentiment heard on [2]the March 3 broadcast of “Hardball” from MSNBC commentator former Rep. Harold Ford, Jr., D-Tenn. Ford said that Obama was failing in his duties to articulate a message on how his administration was going to handle the trouble financial system ailing the overall economy.
“The other thing would be a coherent message for them,” Macke said. “You can’t save everybody. You got to let somebody fail. He’s confusing being articulate with being a leader. To lead – you need to unite the nation and to introduce the idea that someone can fail.”
Kudlow alluded to financial indicators that have historically been precursors to a recovery during recessionary conditions. However, Macke said these signs and the philosophy that Keynesian economics can do some good for markets are meaningless due to the fear in the economy.
“I’m going to direct both you guys away from the propeller-headed economists and dead British guys and into reality,” Macke said. “Scared people don’t spend. Americans are scared because no one’s in charge and the plans that they hear don’t make sense.”
Since Obama took office on Jan. 20, the Dow has lost 900 points. Macke contended that if the Obama administration would get its act together, as others [3]including CNBC’s Jim Cramer have lobbied for, the market would stage a massive rally.
“If the president changes his tune even a little bit, it’s almost impossible to be worse in terms of his tone – if he improves a little bit, we can get 2,000 points out of this easily,” Macke added.