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Just a couple of weeks ago we were told that Congress absolutely had to pass the financial bailout bill, or we would face the Cashpocalypse… that worked out well didn’t it?

James Pethokoukis with US News and World Report has an interesting post talking about what might be causing the Dow to stumble. He says that it’s not fair to say that Wall-Streeters are scared silly by the prospect of an Obama presidency and that’s causing the dive, but he does compare the conditions now to when Reagan entered office in 1980.

After the Bailout: Is Obama Depressing the Market?:

Let’s compare and contrast for a moment. When Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980, he faced the following problems:

1) Confiscatory tax rates. Not only was the top rate 70 percent, but the brackets were not indexed for inflation.

2) Sky-high energy prices. Gas prices moved to $1.25 a gallon, twice what they were in 1976.

3) Credit market turmoil. Interest rates were about 20 percent, and housing was in the tank.

And look what our next president will have to face:

1) Confiscatory tax rates. The United States has the second-highest corporate tax rate in the world, with 70 percent of the burden falling on workers.

2) Sky-high energy prices. Anything lower than $100-a-barrel oil and $4-a-gallon gas looks like a bargain.

3) Credit market turmoil. As bad as anything we have seen since the Great Depression.

But in 1980, we chose to unleash the free market through lower taxes and less regulation. And the stock market boomed, as did the economy. In 2008, we may as a nation choose the opposite path by raising taxes on business, big and small, and on the financial markets through higher capital gains taxes. Also, regulation seems to be the new black. It’s like that Seinfeld episode in which George decides to do everything the opposite. Should be an interesting experiment, America.

Things work out well for Costanza when he does the opposite of his instincts, but I doubt that the economy will do the same. I’m increasingly beginning to believe that no matter who gets elected, we will be looking at a one-termer.

Maybe the Wall Street crowd is jittery about an Obama presidency, maybe they aren’t, but I want to know why we just paid $700 billion only to have the market tank anyway.

Suspect Indicted in Palin Hacker Case:

David Kernell…was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge C. Clifford Shirley, according to a statement from the Justice Department.

David Kernell was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Knoxville for intentionally accessing without authorization the e-mail account of Palin, Alaska’s governor, the Justice Department said.

Kernell, an economics major at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, faces a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a three-year term of supervised release.

Anyone else a little disturbed by the fact that this snot-nosed punk is the son of an elected official?

Remember that moment in the debate Friday night where John McCain mentioned that he was wearing a bracelet commemorating a soldier who was lost in Iraq, and the mother of that solider asked McCain to make sure her son didn’t die in vain?

And Remember how Barack Obama responded by saying that he had a bracelet too… but had to look down for a reminder of who the soldier was? Well not only was that a little embarassing for the Senator from Illinois, but it turns out that the parents of Sgt. Ryan David Jopek aren’t happy with him either. While his mother is an Obama supporter, they asked him to stop bringing it up in public:

Brian Jopek: Because of some of the negative feedback she’s gotten on the Internet, you know Internet blogs, you know people accusing her of… or accusing Obama of trying to get votes doing it… and that sort of thing.

Radio Host Moberg: Yeah

Jopek: She has turned down any subsequent interviews with the media because she just didn’t want it to get turned into something that it wasn’t. She had told me in an email that she had asked, actually asked Mr. Obama to not wear the bracelet any more at any of his public appearances. Which I don’t think he’s…

Moberg: It has been a while since he’s brought it up.

Jopek: Right. But, the other night I was watching the news and he was on, uh, speaking somewhere and he was still wearing it on his right wrist. I could see it on his right wrist. So, that’s his own choice. I mean that’s something Barack Obama, that’s a choice that he continues to wear it despite Tracy asking him not to… Because she is a Barack Obama supporter and she didn’t want to do anything to sabotage his campaign, so, if he’s still wearing the bracelet then, uh, that of course is entirely up to him.