For those of you who haven't been paying attention to financial markets (which is probably somewhere between 0% and 2% of my readers), I'd like to point out that the Dow Jones was not only down 9% in January, but it's down 17% since the election of The Chosen One.

Here's the LINK for a chart of a few days before the election up to the end of January. (Click on the word LINK above.)

Financial markets aren't taken with the charisma of the Obamessiah. They don't see hope for profits or any change for the better.

Instead, they see with the clear vision of the aggregation of business people and investors who recognize the dead hand of government growing larger, with a longer reach, than ever. They see government spending which would make FDR blush and which will likely never be turned back because, as Ronald Reagan said, there is nothing so permanent as a temporary government program. And these Democratic changes aren't intended to be temporary.

As the "stimulus" bill brings us socialized medicine, massive debt, payoffs to corrupt organizations like Acorn, fealty to the dangerous cult of Algore and the hoax of man-made global warming, and while the NY Attorney General threatens criminal charges for employees receiving bonuses down 44% from the year before, the stock market clearly sees our capitalist system flopping around like a just-gutted fish that squirmed briefly out of the fish-monger's hands before dying on the floor.

A chart by the Heritage Foundation makes a dramatic point, even if it's not entirely fair to compare the stimulus bill, which would probably be money spent over several years, to one year's expenses for a family:

As I've said in prior notes, markets don't lie...at least not for long. This market's verdict is already loud and clear and my guess is that the market is a better sale with the Dow at 8,000 than a buy. Why would you want to own part of an American corporation with a government completely dominated by people who hate not just oil companies and banks, but also free trade, low taxes, and the most essential requirement of a successful free-market economy: Profits.

As Steve Moore and others have mentioned, we're living "Atlas Shrugged". The looters are firmly in charge. There's one important difference between the situation in the book and the situation in America today: In the book, the public were as socialist as their government. I don't believe that's the case in our nation in 2009. The Democrats are getting this stuff done behind screams of panic, while people are distracted by a serious recession, without any debate or any input from Republicans. On the bright side, it will create a huge political liability for the Democrats in coming elections. But the downside, which is much larger, is that those elections are far too distant to prevent the Democrats doing tremendous and likely permanent damage to what used to be the economic engine and envy of the world.

It's certainly true that the economic downturn began during the Bush presidency. But the market lows have happened since the election and soon enough this will be Obama's recession despite the media's attempts to block for him.

People get the government they deserve. And for electing that government, the American population is seeing their retirement savings, their employment prospects, and the prospects for a better life for our children shredded.

Hope and Change? Not according to one of the few measures that answers honestly and really matters.