Obama and The Dow

This morning's Journal: "Yesterday the Dow fell . . . for an overall decline of 25% in two months . . . . The dismaying message here is that President Obama's policies have become part of the economy's problem."

Well, it isn't clear whether the Administration is making things worse, or if the markets are realizing that they won't make them better. And no one can demonstrate that some other set of policies would have helped more. Perhaps the economic declines, and the market's anticipations of them, were always inevitable. The correlations between Administration statements and market declines don't necessarily distinguish between the views.

I do suspect the Administration is hurting more than it helps, that markets are pricing larger regulatory and tax burdens than previously expected, and pricing less effective financial resolution. But I can see how Obama's supporters are less concerned. I think it is really too soon to blame the markets on the President.