Barry Ritholtz on what's driving the markets down.

[girl gone mad]

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/03/markets-are-rorschach-inkbot-tests/">Barry Ritholz gives a good summary of the factors behind the current sell-off, and no it is not the fear of nationalization (just the opposite) or tantrums over Obama's budget.

...I can make an even stronger rhetorical argument than these guys did. The things that are bothering markets is more or less the same story that some that’s been slowly seeping into people’s stubborn brains for the past few quarters.

The top was made in October 2007, and since then, we have seen:

• This is the first quarter in the history of the S&P500 to have ZERO EARNINGS;

• The ongoing drip drip drip of never ending bailouts — and the taxpayer funded costs — is pressuring prices.

• The worst recession in many generations started over a year ago, and shows no signsof ending anytime soon;

• The market is tanking is due to the lack of nationalization — we’d better off getting it done sooner rather than later;

• The overall market trend has been relentlessly down for the past 18 months;

• The overstretched consumer has retrenched and is now in savings mode;

• The US has deficits are horrific — and only going to get worse;

• Consumer sentiment is so bad its spilling over to everything else.

• That the leadership of corporate America has been shown to be so inept and incompetent that potential buyers of these businesses are marking them down to reflect this;

These are just a few obvious factors off of the top of my head. You can blame either Obama or Bush (or both), but the reality is the forces driving the market are much bigger than either of them.

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