Who Are We Rewarding?

The stock market is down 40% since the day Obama won the Democratic Party nomination. That is not encouraging. Effectively, the market has given our new president a terrible reaction at every turn.

Why? Investors have no idea what to make of the future of this country. Will they get to keep capital gains? Will taxes explode? Will unions get huge bailouts? Will companies be nationalized? These are all possibilities that investors hate, and our president has done little to ease such fears.

In the meantime, it seems that the best way to get a government reward is to screw up. Bankrupt a bank - get money!
Lose your house - get money!
Make cars nobody wants with expensive labor - get money!

Is this really how American should work? Of course not. We should reward the conservative tax payers that didn't get into bad mortgage deals. We should reward executives that have been responsible with their companies. We should reward success - NOT FAILURE!!

So suck it up, America, the worst is yet to come. Until we send clear signals that success will be rewarded we can logically expect investors to be fearful, and fearful investors to not make for good economies.