Doofus Deduction

At least before Murdoch bought it the Wall Street Journal was a pretty good paper - if you took the precaution of discarding the opinion pages. Paul Gigot and friends have written some pretty stupid editorials over the years, but this one is truly below and beyond.

As 2009 opened, three weeks before Barack Obama took office, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 9034 on January 2, its highest level since the autumn panic. Yesterday the Dow fell another 4.24% to 6763, for an overall decline of 25% in two months and to its lowest level since 1997. The dismaying message here is that President Obama's policies have become part of the economy's problem.

How f****** stupid do they think we are? How stupid are the people who actually pay to read this?

The stock market's recent collapse couldn't have something to do with the uniformly disastrous news that has come out in the past two months could it? That news consists nearly entirely of data measured before Obama became President.

These are the same people, you might remember, who blamed Jimmy Carter!!! for the economy's collapse at the end of Bush's second term.

For the WSJ, it seems, the stock market is a flighty thing highly subject to the vapors. The collapse of production, sales, jobs, and the financial system could hardly be a factor. There is nothing real in your universe Mr. Gigot. Hope that Koolaid tasted good.

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