Wall Street braces for an Obama win

[kpete]

Source: Politico

Wall Street braces for an Obama win

NEW YORK — Mitt Romney was Wall Street’s dream candidate, a former private equity executive committed to lower taxes and less regulation who would never rip bankers as “fat cats” as President Barack Obama famously did.

But now many masters of the universe concede they may not get their man.

Across Wall Street and the broader landscape of corporate America, even strong supporters of Romney acknowledge that swing state polling numbers and the direction of economic data and markets suggest it’s time to brace for a second Obama term.

“It looks right now like it’s probably going to be Obama, so you have to start planning for that, even if it’s not what you would prefer,” said the chief executive of one of the largest companies in the United States who has criticized the president and spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to give a frank assessment of the state of the race. The executive added that plans were under way to work with a second Obama administration on selling a plan to avoid the fiscal cliff with major tax and entitlement reform that includes some new revenues.






Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81738.html#ixzz27gGurrSU

[Courtesy Flush]

1. One thing we've learned in the last few years

Is that Wall Street can thrive while not creating a single job. President Romney would gloat about renewed market performance, and working people would still not be getting a paycheck.

[Blue_Tires]

6. We've also learned that no matter how much

slack Obama gives Wall Street to enrich themselves, at the end of the day they will still paint him as some anti-capitalist and still pour hundreds of millions into supporting his opponent...

[SunSeeker]

13. +1!

[liberal N proud]

2. The last 3 years have been pretty good for Wall Street investors, why would there be concern?

They want America to believe that Wall Street will crash if they don't get Romney.

[still_one]

3. They are not as concerned as politico would like you to believe /nt

[OnyxCollie]

24. Yeah, Jamie Dimon's shaking in his Presidential cuff links. nt

[titaniumsalute]

4. The DOW is up 7,000 points since he took office...

...and they are afraid of Obama? Huh? He's made millionaires and billionaires.

[2pooped2pop]

5. so the bank executives are gonna write the "entitlement" reforms now?

The executive added that plans were under way to work with a second Obama administration on selling a plan to avoid the fiscal cliff with major tax and entitlement reform that

[Gary 50]

7. Suffering wall street.

Oh well, the stack market will just have to suffer through another doubling in the next four years. Their fondest hopes of installing another right wing zealot who will lead us to the brink of another depression while halving the stock market and involving us in more wars and driving the national debt to 20 trillion will just have to be put on hold. They can cry for the next four or eight or twelve years that there is just too much uncertainty for the corporations to spend any of their spare trillions. And the Republican politicians can make their secret deals to do everything in their power to undermine any economic progress while conducting witch hunts against anybody with a D before their name.

[thelordofhell]

26. Great Post

Welcome to DU Gary!!

[bhikkhu]

8. The "captains of industry" are prone to leading the lemmings off the cliff

...so if they don't get exactly what they want - which is a free rein - then very often that's the best thing for the country.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

9. Anyone notice

The "coincidence" of timing between Wall Street's resignation and increasing contributions to the Obama Super Pac?

[BlueStreak]

10. "BRACE" !? That's complete BS

The market has done GREAT with Obama in there. These guys are making money like crazy.

They always do when Democrats are in the White House. There is nothing to "brace" for.

[progressivebydesign]

12. I think they're talking about the scumbags that loot and pillate the average person for profit.

Not the people that actually do well in the Market itself. We're talking the obscene money.. like Romney, and the Koch bros who made billions driving our oil prices up putting people into bankruptcy.

[BlueStreak]

17. Yes. That crowd doesn't welcome Obama

having another 4 years to oversee Dodd-Frank.

[Ikonoklast]

18. "Pease don't throw us into the briar patch!"

Wall Street is bracing the floors in their vaults so they don't collpase under the weight of all the money they are going to make.

[BlueStreak]

20. Do you realize how long the waiting lines will be for a new Ferrari?

Brace yourself for difficult times ahead.

[progressivebydesign]

11. WTF? The Stock Market has SOARED under President Obama.. or are they talking the pig traders???

You know, the assholes that make a billion a year personally?? Not the average investor who actually made some fucking money under this Administration???

Wall Street means, in political speak, the robber barrons, the guys doing coke at their place in the Hamptons, who make more money (in their 30s) each year than an town's entire budget?? You know, by manipulating prices, and dodging taxes?? Those guys???

[pampango]

14. "Why does Wall Street Dislike Obama so much? (strong market, but he hasn't "fixed things".)

http://delong.typepad.com/.a/6a00e551f080038834016304a925a0970d-pi

A worker bee at a mainline investment bank told me last fall:

Back in 2008 Wall Street was split 40-60 Obama-McCain. Now it is split 10-90 Obama-Romney.

Why? It is not as though Wall Street has done badly under Obama. Stock prices are up and interest rates are down, so leveraged financial institutions long assets--as Wall Street inevitably is--have done very, very well indeed. The standard bargain that the Democrats offer Wall Street has held. It is:

We will try to tax you (and, given the power of your lobbying operation in Congress, probably fail to do so), but we will give you competent economic management in striking contrast to that offered by the ideologically-blinded wingnuts who are the Republicans.

That has been the bargain that the Democrats have offered Wall Street from the days of Hoover to Bush II, and when Wall Street has had a sense of its own long-run interests, it has taken the Democrats up on it. And it has been happy.

Why not this time? What is going on? What is there about 50% real increases in equity values over less than 3 1/2 years that is not to like?

A big part of it, I think, is that Obama was not just supposed to make things better: he was supposed to fix things--to bring things back to "normal". Things are certainly not back to normal for America's workers (not that that is of any concern to Wall Street). And, while things are pretty much back to their mid-2000s normal for equity investors--an S&P of 1400 compared to 1500 in the summer of 2007--that is definitely not the case for financials.

Obama did not fix things: Wall Street bankers today are a lot poorer than they were in mid-2007. And the Wall Street bankers think that Obama disses them. And the Wall Street bankers know that Obama wants to tax them.

This historical record strongly suggests that they will do much, much better if Obama wins a second term than if he loses to Romney. But Wall Street is not listening.

http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2012/04/why-does-wall-street-dislike-obama-so-much.html

[JDPriestly]

23. Truth is: Wall Street has been throwing itself a big, big party since about 1992,A

and WE, ordinary Americans, weren't invited.

If Wall Street and the financial sector are in bad shape, they have themselves to blame.

We on Main Street have no control. We have been lurching from grocery bill to grocery bill
since 2007. We are so much worse off than Wall Street that it isn't funny.

I'm retired. My savings earn no money. Housing has lost value. We and most other seniors rely on Social Security for our income.

I pay my debts. I did not gamble on the stock market. I did not make bad loans that others could not pay. And in those respects I am like most other Americans who got caught up in the horrible economy that resulted from the greed of people like Romney and others in the mortgage companies, banks and on Wall Street.

Wall Street billionaires feel sorry for themselves -- a bunch of self-centered fools.

[pampango]

25. I suspect their party goes back to 1981 or so, but I agree with your point.

Wall Street types do feel sorry for themselves as crazy as that seems. I guess that is proof that some people never think they have enough (no matter how foolish that belief is to others) or they forget how much worse they had it just a few years ago and dream of a return to the go-go days of the bubble.

[FailureToCommunicate]

15. Wall Street: "Stop it. This is hard. You want to try it? "

[WilliamPitt]

16. Yeah, they hate making money.

Wait, what?

[Riverman]

19. Great! Start with cutting the Pentagon = 60% of Fed Budget, by 30%-50%

[Mz Pip]

21. I don't know what Wall Street has to complain about

It's done fine since Obama's been in office.

I doubt whatever reforms may be planned for Obama's second term will result in Wall Street going off a fiscal cliff. I really hate whiny rich people.

[lunatica]

22. Gee. All those billions and billions they were going to get with Romney as Prez

Are all fading away like a thin fog on a hot day. Poor guys! How will they ever be able to make it on their paltry millions?

[upaloopa]

27. Who speaks for the 99% in the off the cliff talks

[davidn3600]

28. Why does Wall Street hate Obama? Here's why...

Romney wants to drop capital gains taxes across the board which means investors can take home bigger profits. Obama is suggesting returning the rate for the wealthy back to what they were during the Clinton era. Republicans are convinced doing this will drive investors offshore.

Also the banks don't like Obama. He's made it more difficult for banks to foreclose on delinquent mortgages, especially during the robosigning mess. And his plans are putting pressure on banks and increasing their regulation. Obama wants to open up HARP/HAMP to an additional 8 million homeowners to refinance or modify their loans at lower interest rates even if they have bad credit or income issues. Banks don't like this obviously since they will make less money on interest. Romney's plan is to remove regulations and speed up foreclosures saying the only way for the real estate market to improve is to let it bottom out and let the foreclosures run their course.

These are just a few of the reasons. The investor class has done quite well under Obama even with the recession and sputtering recovery. But they still are not happy. They want more.