Obama Works the Markets

During the election, Barack Obama was tarred as a lightweight. But since winning, writes Peter Brown at Political Perceptions, "the way he teased the markets and the media about what he will do about taxes and spending also showed an aptitude for operating in the Wall Street-Washington arena." When word broke that Timothy Geithner would be Treasury Secretary, "the leak was meant to buttress the market." The move worked: The Dow rallied 500 points and the market some feared would finish below 7,000 that day finished about at 8,000. And Obama has promised stimulus and to not raise taxes in his first year—moves that instigated three consecutive days of gains for the Dow and S&P 500 for the first time since July 2007. "[P]erhaps Mr. Obama, or at least someone on his team," Brown writes, "isn't quite as inexperienced about how the world works--at least the world of money--than his opponents suggested during the campaign."