Financial institutions were essentially re-stabilized before Obama was sworn in. Almost no one has been able to take advantage of the “mortgage rescue” program. The “economic recovery plan” is mostly life-support funding for strapped local/state governments and pent-up pork spending. Long-term lending? Not much happening there until the spending outlook stabilizes. With a couple of trillion or more in new proposals floating around Congress, that’s not gonna be anytime soon. Investment? Superdestroyer nails it. We already have higher business taxes than most of Europe, and the outlook is for higher and deeper. Capital flows to friendly climes, and we’re looking increasingly unfriendly.

BTW, the terms of ARRA require that the $800B appropriated for the so-called “stimulus” plan be committed for spending (not actually spent, but committed for spending by the recipients) by September 31st…of 2010, the run-up to the fall elections. The real target it’s designed to stimulate is the electoral chances of Congressional Democrats.

I still think selling idea of passing health care reform as essential to our long term economic strength is a tough pill to swallow for Independents.

Once again, define “health care reform.” It’s a tough sell because one has to be willfully blind to believe that piling more costs onto our economy at this point is conducive to an improved economic outlook.

Any investor in the U.S. would have to take a long, hard look at any new investment in the U.S. due to the potential to be regulated out of business or paying such high taxes and the investment is unwise.

As long as the government is running such high deficits, the long term prospect is for much higher taxes. Why would anyone want to make new investment in such as an environment?