Correlation is not causation and while many of us feel his policies have not restored confidence there are other causes for the declines that can not be ignored.

We are in a demographic shift as the baby boomers are retiring and moving past their prime consuming year. Consumption trends are likely to be level to down.

We are also unwinding a long overblown credit bubble. Average household debt was high and unsustainable before the housing boom. Rising house prices just gave a false sense of security for homeowners to get even deeper in debt.

Clearly our financial system got way out of control and consumed much too large a portion of our economy. It must unwind.

The damage in investor confidence will take some time to overcome. Economist and accounting professionals did a very poor job of advising and protecting us as did our regulators and those in government.

None of the above can be blamed on Obama.

This is not to say that his policies and plans can not make this worse.

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