Beware (Seemingly) Sound Fundamentals
“McCain greeted the day of Lehman’s demise at a rally in Jacksonville, Florida. The Dow was already plunging its way toward a five-hundred-point decline between the opening and closing bells. “There’s been tremendous turmoil in our financial markets and Wall Street, and it is—people are frightened by these events,” McCain said. “ The fundamentals of our economy are strong , but these are very, very difficult times. ( Game Change , p. 379 ) Today, Team Obama breathed a sigh of relief with the news that the country added 163,000 jobs in July. However, it also finds itself in a precarious position. While a strong economy would almost certainly guarantee the President a second term, that’s not what we have. We have an economy that’s teetering on the edge, exhibiting signs of strength and signs of weakness from one month to the next, and sometimes simultaneously (Deep in today’s report was ...