Obama's Honeymoon Likely To End March 31st!

Every President experiences a honeymoon period and although President Obama's agenda, including his administrations housing plan, budget and stimulus bill have failed to gain widespread support, his personal approval numbers remain high. For new Presidents this honeymoon period can last up too a year, but for President Obama there is one event that will occur on March 31st that will end his honeymoon period and apply a great deal of pressure on the approval numbers politician's cherish.



March 31st is the end of the first quarter and in the following days, tens of millions of Americans will begin receiving their investment statements. When they do, watch out. In reality, many Americans have tuned out of the news, no longer able to hear the ongoing negative news that they are bombarded with. In addition, those same Americans have tuned out of their retirement and investment portfolios, afraid to look up the values, afraid of the sticker shock that awaits them.

I recently met with an individual who had taken a voluntary retirement package (forced retirement in lieu of layoffs). A portion of the package provided for 1 years salary based upon his years of service, he plans on finding another job, but is in no hurry at the time. When I asked about his stock option and 401(k) plans he admitted that he had not even opened his year end statements, merely because he knew it would be bad. Last week he finally opened the statements and had seen his portfolio shrink by 32% through year end. When he looked up the values through the end of last week, his accounts had dropped by another 23%. This is the sticker shock that awaits so many Americans who are in the same position, fearful of opening their statements.

The Obama administration has less than a month to change their rhetoric and begin to demonstrate and install some confidence into the markets. If they cannot, then those millions of Americans will open up their investment statements, see losses that match those of last year and immediately begin wondering what this administration is doing. Those Americans will begin to wonder why a Chinese Stimulus Plan sent GLOBAL markets soaring overnight, while our own administrations record-breaking plan sent Global markets down. Those same Americans will begin to wonder why the markets haven't responded to any of the Obama administrations plans and why we're rushed into those plans, much as we were with the Bush Administration.

Americans tune out when political debates occur; they overlook partisan bickering and blame. Americans however do not tune out when it comes to their own pocketbook, and trust me if they have no hope for their savings, then they will have no tolerance for the current administration.