I'm not talking about the fear factor of the American people. Not buying is just a small part of the equation. I'm talking about the credit situation. No lending is going on. Businesses that need capital to expand and provide jobs are scared to death. Businesses are worrying daily if they can meet payrolls or replace inventories. Many small businesses are just hunkering down. Small businesses need assurance from this administration that they can get the credit they need to operate. And even though there are signs that credit is easing, it has taken far too long and that is why so many jobs have been lost. Obama had five weeks before Jan 20 to work on financial stability and now two months and the Treasury departments is still in shambles.

Fanta

Citigroup's rally had little to do with what you stated and more to do with Pandits announcement that Citi has been profitable for the first two months of 2009.

Yeah I know, but I bet youd have let them fail.

Here it is, 6 month's later, and they are profitable.
This was from the first stimulus.

6 months and you wont give Obama 2 ....

You say Obama is wrong and yet there is proof that it works.
Failing banks are showing profit.
Before you know it and they will begin making payments, by buying stocks back from the tax-payers.
Putting the money back.

We will know the bottom has been reached when the first (the start of the problem), begins to recover.

Consumers not buying can also be contributed to the amount of people that are unemployed right now. They don't buy and then the businesses close. House prices are falling and the general contractor has less work. He buys less. There are so many factors. I don't believe that it's all about the fear factor.

Fanta

NO NO NO. Obviously you haven't read all my post. Letting Lehman fail was the huge mistake that can't be repeated. I was with Bush not the republicans on that one. As well as with Bush and not Congress on
the auto makers.
Obama has not used the second half of the tarp yet. Geitner has a plan but details still have not been released. Meanwhile, credit is pretty much frozen.

While it is true that consumers not buying contributed,
I still believe plain old fear and the lack of understanding from the Obama administratrion of how Wall Street and the banks connect directly to jobs lead to more of the job loss and finacial instability.

Nothing has worked. Until the mortgage assets are dealt with we are stuck. Bush and Paulson used capital injections into the banks which probably prevented bankruptcy and the total collapse of the good old USA and I'm being serious. Congress appropriated the Tarp money to buy up the deflated assets of banks but Paulson used the money to inject capital into banks. Geitner is working on a plan to sort of go back to the original ideas to buy up the deflated assets according to the media. I hope that is what he is working on and not some kind of insurance program for these deflated assets. Unfortunately, while we wait more and more damage is being done to jobs.

Indeed, the turn around will come with bank financial stability and that has always been the case. As I said, priority one to stop job loss is bank financial stability. Obama missed that early boat.