Glenbarry Glen 'Bama

James Pethokoukis writes, “Let me explain what is going on with Barack Obama’s economic policies and the stock market, off 30 percent Election Day”:

Let me explain what is going on with Barack Obama’s economic policies and the stock market, off 30 percent Election Day. And let me explain it this way: You know the film, Glengarry Glen Ross? At the beginning, Alec Baldwin gives a speech to a room full of underperforming real estate brokers. It’s not exactly a pep talk. This is a representative portion:

Nice guy? I don’t give a [expletive]. Good father. [Expletive] you, go home and play with your kids. You want to work here, close. You think this is abuse? You think this is abuse, you
[expletive]. You can’t take this, how can you take the abuse you get on a sit. If you don’t like it, leave.

And that, my friends, is how the financial markets work. They don’t care about hope. They don’t care about change. They don’t care about charm. They want results. They want economic growth. They want governments that can pay their debts. And if they think policies of high taxes or runaway spending means slow growth or default, they will brutally punish a country’s stocks, bonds and currency.

Personally, I blame the imbalance in most stocks’ profit and earnings ratio.