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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bearcatbob who wrote (17867)	4/25/2004 4:14:41 PM
From: lorne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81568

Why worry about who wins the presidential election? Sunday, April 25 heraldtribune.com "Imagine President Kerry saying that he's going to raise taxes. Just let him try to get that through a Republican-controlled Congress." ROLAND CALDWELL, Roland Caldwell has been in the business of investing client money since 1958. His current company, Venice-based Caldwell Trust, has grown to $280 million in assets under management. Despite the fact that stock market values slid for nearly three years at the beginning of the decade, Caldwell Trust has protected client assets. Over the past year, client portfolios have begun to grow again. But Caldwell, who works with his son, Kelly, says clients have become increasingly concerned about the pending presidential elections. They've been asking about what impact the outcome will have on the economy and stock market. The Caldwells say they have spent a lot of time reassuring their clients that everything is going to be OK, that checks and balances are in place that will keep the economy from getting out of hand and the stock market from plummeting. Staff writer Michael Braga sat down with the two Caldwells to discuss their reasoning. Q What impact will the pending elections have on the economy and the stock market? A Roland Caldwell: None. No impact whatsoever. Q So it doesn't matter who's elected? A Roland: Economically it doesn't matter. It would be the same either way in the short term. In the long term, if Bush gets re-elected, and gets the tax reforms he wants, then business will expand rapidly. The market is a great barometer. If it felt the results of elections mattered, the market would respond. If investors thought (John) Kerry was going to do something bad and saw him coming up in the polls, you would see the market go in the opposite direction. The reason why that isn't happening is that the probability that Congress will become controlled by the Democrats is zilch. Imagine President Kerry saying that he's going to raise taxes. Just let him try to get that through a Republican-controlled Congress. Kerry will have his hands full trying to get anything done that Congress doesn't want him to get done. He will either have to go with the flow or be a do-nothing president, which is the same thing that happened to President Clinton. Clinton didn't hurt anybody because he couldn't. If Kerry is elected it won't affect us. He can do no harm, but he may benefit from the tax reforms that Bush pushed through. Q If neither candidate is able to raise taxes, what will happen to the budget deficit? A Roland: The budget deficit is not a real problem today. If it were a problem, you'd see interest rates rising dramatically. But they're not. The one thing you've got to worry about a little is gold prices. They're up in the $400 range and that's a little bit of a concern. It's telling us that we need to get a handle on the deficit. It's not out of control or anything, but Congress should do a better job of controlling spending. Q Would Bush be better at getting Congress to control spending than Kerry? A Roland: Well, there are a lot of people in the Republican Party who are very nervous about that. (House Majority Leader) Tom DeLay and others are saying: "Mr. President, you need to get this under control. You're talking like a Democrat here, allowing spending on every damn program that comes along because you want to get re-elected." They don't like that. Q What about Kerry? Would he be better with regard to spending? A Roland: It will be more difficult for Kerry to get spending programs through Congress than Bush. Whatever he wants, is not going to get passed. But if he realizes that something needs to be done to reduce the deficit, other than raising taxes, he may be able do something to control spending. Q Do you think further tax cuts are needed? If so, which candidate would be better for the country? A Kelly: In the long term, business will be better off if taxes are lower. Kerry has said he is not going to continue the Bush tax cuts. If Bush is re-elected and continues tax cuts or enhances them, you will see further economic growth and that would be very good for business. But at this point, Bush has not made the case for further tax cuts in his re-election campaign. One would assume, however, that since he cut taxes his first term, he would continue to do something like that in his second term. Q What happens if the situation in Iraq deteriorates in coming months? A Roland: It's having an impact right now. What the terrorists are trying to do is what they did in Spain, which is influence the outcome of the election. But if Kerry succeeds in beating Bush, what is he going to do? Bush said we can't cut and run and Kerry agrees. Therefore, whoever wins will follow the same sort of pattern. If policy doesn't change, there will be no impact on the economy. Q You mentioned earlier that the rising value of gold is a concern. Can you explain that? A Roland: Gold is a long term indicator of value of our currency. It's worth 400 dollar bills now. It used to be worth 350. That means each dollar is worth less. We don't like to see this deterioration in buying power. I guarantee you that Alan Greenspan watches (the) value of gold every morning. It's the first thing he does. The higher that gold prices rise, the more probability he will act to raise interest rates.

To: Bearcatbob who wrote (17867)	4/25/2004 7:33:00 PM
From: Patricia Trinchero	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81568

I am not advocating leaving...........I think we blew it big time when we went in there...........Powell said it,"you'll own it", and we own the problem right now. There probably isn't going to be a pretty way out of it either. We will be losing men there for years............wanna sign up ? Bush should start his next press conference by singing," What kind of fool am I". We have destabilized the region and it just might take another tyrant to keep order in that place..........or the sections will end up as different countries.