It isn’t a matter of who you like

It is a matter of who you can afford. Obama and Clinton are fixed on providing better lives for many using the government coffers. We’ve done that at times. You need a very strong economy to pull it off.

There are two ways the nation can control spending. One is in our elected officials and the other is the Federal Reserve that prints money and can do it on a whim. Y2K was a terrorizing aspect to Chairman Greenspan. He flooded the scene with funds to cover the disruptions he saw ahead. It didn’t happen. New money goes somewhere and that is usually Wall Street and we had the Internet bubble.

So, looking at the chart above, you might get the idea that the Fed isn’t going to rein in anything. It has accommodated the last two presidents to make the economic activities pretty simple.

As to the elected side, Bush has not even tried to rein in spending. While everyone seems ready to attack his economic planning, there were benefit – as we also benefitted – from that spending. When we print or spend money because we can print it or ignore the accountants, at some point it comes home to roost.

When the pols point out the recent weakness, consider the source. They been on a multi year spending binge and we’ve had bubble after bubble as a result. The recent one because many considered their home their private ATM. It doesn’t work that way. Even if you don’t have the investing acumen of a Soros, you can pay down that house over the 30 years and have a nice chunk of equity to help your retirement.

Gasoline isn’t costly. The dollar is in the toilet. If you elect someone willing to print a bunch more dollars, it will get even costlier. We’d wish we could pull off the opposite but the world isn’t that accommodating.