Quote:
Originally Posted by willx
^ As someone that works in finance, I think your comments above are a huge stretch. Even in Canada, there is generally a notion that out right-wing parties are typically more fiscally responsible than the left-wing parties and also better for business. Markets tend to go up. He's sitting there talking to a number of financially sophisticated people -- and it's all very likely the truth.
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First, I don't think Canadian culture has the same degree of support for cutthroat capitalist practices as we do here in the US. Second, the notion that right-wing parties are more fiscally responsible is certainly a myth when it comes to the United States since Reagan. I think you'd also have a difficult time showing a relationship between the Republican administrations and performance of the stock markets. If anything the
evidence shows that the markets might have done better during Democratic administrations, but in general the effects of party on the performance of the stock market is a wash. One would imagine that these supposedly "financially sophisticated people" would know these things as well.
In addtiion, I'm not really talking about financial institutions here, but the real economy instead. Corporations are hoarding large amounts of cash and not re-investing in their firms. One obvious reason for lack of investment is weak demand, to be sure, and there could be some of the famous "uncertainty" about regulations that Republicans like to point to as an explanation. But neither of those really seem sufficient explanations to me. Most industries have more or less the same set of regulations today as they did in 2008 regardless of Republican propaganda to the contrary. Most of the provisions of "Obamacare" will not even take effect until 2014 so they really have had little effect on investment decisions over the past three years. Dodd-Frank may have some (unfortunately too little, in my mind) sway over financial institutions, but most economic actors are unaffected by its provisions. I can understand why the Republican small business owner in Idaho I heard on NPR this morning might parrot back propaganda on regulation, but not the people sitting in the room in Boca Raton. They should know well how to manipulate the regulatory apparatus to get the results they prefer. They have been doing it for years.
It sounds to me like you are suffering from some of that "ingrained political conditioning" yourself.