Obama and the Economy

Heard something interesting last night, Neither Barack or Michelle Obama have any retirement accounts. Zero. Not a huge deal, except it appears that he doesn't really understand how they work and how they shape most American's futures.

I'm no fan of Billary, but they have retirement accounts, so they at least see first hand how the market effects them. Same goes for McCain and the Bush's (dad and son). Now, none of these people have any worries when it comes to retiring, McCain is probably the poorest of them all, and I don't think he's struggling.

But am I the only person who see's something fundamentally wrong with a potential President who has no personal interest in the stock markets?

cardinal5150 wrote:Heard something interesting last night, Neither Barack or Michelle Obama have any retirement accounts. Zero. Not a huge deal, except it appears that he doesn't really understand how they work and how they shape most American's futures.

I'm no fan of Billary, but they have retirement accounts, so they at least see first hand how the market effects them. Same goes for McCain and the Bush's (dad and son). Now, none of these people have any worries when it comes to retiring, McCain is probably the poorest of them all, and I don't think he's struggling.

But am I the only person who see's something fundamentally wrong with a potential President who has no personal interest in the stock markets?

Obama and his wife I am sure have holdings, just not a retirement account per se, I am sure Barack and Michelle will be better off in retirement than you Mr. Cardinal.

I would rather have a president with no money in the market than a president with $30 million in Halliburton....

pez wrote:a president with $30 million in Halliburton....

Which one would that be, Clinton or McCain?

Bman wrote:
Obama and his wife I am sure have holdings, just not a retirement account per se, I am sure Barack and Michelle will be better off in retirement than you Mr. Cardinal.

I'm sure he is... considering I hope to have a total of $2M to retire on and he made that much in 2005 and 2006 off his books alone it's not too hard to figure out he's going to be wealthy for life without even trying.

But no.. he does not have any stock. He probably has real estate holdings or something like that, but no stock. I just find it a bit odd.

one thought is..in politics might it come back to bite him if any of his holdings are invested in..say...oil, or pharm, or agricultural products? they are gonna scrutinize every little thing as he continues.. he would be of the age where he may have been close to people who lost big chunks during the dotcom bubble-burst days..maybe it made him think there could be other ways to protect his finances? the sharks hoping to would him will use literally anything.

does he have cd's, kids college savings, a method of budgeting where there is a consistant savings being built?

i dont see something fundamentally wrong with a potential President who has no personal interest in the stock markets. maybe he knows stuff we dont know LOL!

From all reports I've heard... and these are CNBC, not Rush.... it has more to do with his upbringing of both he and Michelle not wanting to be part of "the man". But, maybe it is that they don't want to be scrutinized for holding Halliburton. There are pretty easy ways around that, create a blind trust to put your money in, voila, problem solved.

He doesn't take money from lobbyists, so that alone would eliminate the issue of him holding stock in someone who is paying him off.

He's got real estate, there's numerous articles out there about his rather shady dealings with his former neighbor whom he paid a load of money for a small strip of land. That deal alone means he's either corrupt or a piss poor businessman in my eyes. But I'm not privy to all the details as well, so who knows.

cardinal5150 wrote:From all reports I've heard... and these are CNBC, not Rush.... it has more to do with his upbringing of both he and Michelle not wanting to be part of "the man". But, maybe it is that they don't want to be scrutinized for holding Halliburton. There are pretty easy ways around that, create a blind trust to put your money in, voila, problem solved.

He doesn't take money from lobbyists, so that alone would eliminate the issue of him holding stock in someone who is paying him off.

He's got real estate, there's numerous articles out there about his rather shady dealings with his former neighbor whom he paid a load of money for a small strip of land. That deal alone means he's either corrupt or a piss poor businessman in my eyes. But I'm not privy to all the details as well, so who knows.

Not expecting you to vote for him, go ahead and vote for that senile 70something old man that Joe Liberman has to whisper to in order to keep his message straight. I wonder what that hot lobbyist saw in John McCain, oh she was banging him for the lucrative contracts.

It's kind of funny how any discussion of Obama ends up with "At least he's not <insert Republican of choice>".

Sounds like the same argument people used for voting for John Kerry...