Not Good …

There were two news items that caught my eye yesterday as the media coverage continued its fluffing for Obama. Expectations for this guy are sure way above anything he’s even actually accomplished in the past. We continue to be more caught up in the so-called symbolism of our election results rather than the truth behind what we did: elect a virtual cipher with an ability to deliver speeches with teleprompters well.  Meanwhile, over in the real world there were two huge votes of NO CONFIDENCE.

First this:

Stocks Plunge as Investors Ponder Obama Presidency

NEW YORK (AP) — A case of post-election nerves has sent stocks plunging as investors, again anxious about a recession, are wondering what impact a Barack Obama presidency will have on business and the overall economy. Volatility has returned on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones industrials falling 486 points to the 9,139 level, and all the major indexes tumbling more than 5 percent.

The market was expected to give back some gains after a six-day runup that lifted the Standard & Poor’s 500 index more than 18 percent. But investors lost some of their confidence about the economy and began dumping stocks again; light volume helped exaggerate the price swings, and there was more late-day selling by hedge funds.

Analysts said the market is also growing anxious about whom Obama selects as the next Treasury Secretary, as well as whom he picks for other Cabinet positions.

You’ll remember that I said that I was detecting some momentum shifts in the market when polls were released prior to election day.  Averages went up when McCain was up and down when Obama went up.  This puts one more piece of evidence into my eyeball economics.  There have been a few post-election day drops, but they have been far outnumbered by post-election day rallies.  The drop yesterday was the most extreme (nearly 500 points) and was preceded by US stock futures trading way down in Europe in Asia. Usually, the market will rally after an election day because the level of uncertainty has gone done among investors.  This plunge signals just the opposite.  This is a complete vote of no confidence by the folks that would be most responsible for a ‘normal path to recovery’ saying we don’t think he’s up to it, but let’s hope he points some good proxies.  This is also an international signal. Not good.

Then, later in the evening, this popped up from the foreign desks.

Russia to deploy short-range missiles near Poland

MOSCOW – Russia will deploy short-range missiles near Poland to counter U.S. military plans in Eastern Europe, President Dmitry Medvedev warned Wednesday, setting a combative tone that clashed with global goodwill over Barack Obama’s election.

In his first state of the nation speech, Medvedev blamed Washington for the war in Georgia and the world financial crisis and suggested it was up to Washington to mend badly damaged ties.

This was a blatant shot-across-the-bow.  Mother Russia has been exercising her muscle ever since Putin took the helm.  This was a direct question from Russia on the future direction of our foreign policy and of our position in NATO decision-making.  It appears that VP Elect Biden was prescient on this one.  Do we have a “Poland Missile Crisis” in the making?  This is a direct test of the Obama doctrine of hopey-changey talk to every one and let’s all get along. 

Obama needs to stop measuring drapes for the oval office and white house long enough to deal firmly with these things today.  If not, I’ll consider this day to mark his first “The Pet Goat” moment.  Soon, we will all know that its likely to be like another four years of a President and Commander in Chief in need of training wheels.  We all learned how well that worked the last eight years, didn’t we?