Obama Wins Presidential Election, Faces Tough Road to Economic Recovery

Since this is not a political blog, my comments on the results of last night's presidential election will be brief.  On a personal note, watching last night's election results was possibly one of the most inspiring experiences of my life as an American citizen.  As I listened to Mr. Obama deliver his victory speech, it became more and more clear to me that not only did we elect the first African American President, but we also elected a real leader with extraordinary vision, compassion and integrity.  President-elect Obama promised to work together with the citizens of this country, particularly those with differing opinions, to resolve our many problems.  This is exactly the type of attitude that citizens of this country want to hear from their leaders after suffering through years of painfully divisive political leadership.  

As for all the "pundits" proclaiming how bad Obama's policies will be for the market, I just don't buy it.  It is yet another one of those catch-phrases tossed about, like "tax-and-spend liberals" that has no basis in fact, given that Republican administrations have presided over the largest deficits.  Although I am certainly no proponent of huge tax increases and big government, I also find fault with the idea that constantly cutting taxes is the solution for every problem.  The government has to raise revenue somehow and I don't believe it will be the death knell for the market if the capital gains tax rate returns to Clinton-era levels and the estate tax is reintroduced.  If memory serves correctly, the market did very well in the 90's and we had huge surpluses.  The market has gone absolutely nowhere in the past eight years and we are sitting on record deficits while we have had the lowest tax rates this country has ever seen.  Something is clearly not working, and it needs to change.  I am hopeful that the optimism that our newly elected President elicited last night from the people of this country will see us through the difficult road to recovery.  Because it will indeed be very difficult.