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twitterELECTION 2008:
Wall Street runs through Las Vegas, campaigns
On the stump: Obama moves to pin turmoil on McCain, Republicans
Sam Morris
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama greets supporters Wednesday at Las Vegas’ Cashman Field. The event, which drew 11,000-12,000, was the second Nevada campaign stop of the day for the Illinois senator.
Published Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008 | 2:02 a.m.
Updated Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008 | 7:55 a.m.
Obama Rally at Cashman
Barack Obama spoke at a rally at Cashman Field in North Las Vegas on Wednesday night. He discussed tax credits to families struggling with mortgages, health care, solar power in Nevada and creating new jobs for teachers nationwide.
Reader poll
Sen. Barack Obama appeared at Cashman Field on Wednesday, but a more appropriate spot might have been four miles down the road on the lonely grounds of Echelon.
Culinary Union workers cheer Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama during his appearance Wednesday in Las Vegas.
Sun Archives
- Obama takes hard swings at McCain’s statements on economy (9-17-2008)
- Candidates scramble to shift economic message (9-17-2008)
- Obama jabs McCain over economy in Nevada speech (9-17-2008)
- Democrats flock to see Obama in Elko (9-17-2008)
- Obama supporters prepare for candidate’s visit (9-16-2008)
- Polls show McCain with edge in Nevada (9-15-2008)
Beyond the Sun
That partially finished multibillion-dollar Strip resort, paralyzed because the money is gone, has become a symbol of Wall Street’s far-reaching impact on Las Vegas.
After a year in which Las Vegas neighborhoods suffered from the subprime mortgage meltdown, the Strip and its $32 billion building boom are also feeling the sorrows of a vanishing loan market.
Against that backdrop, the Democratic presidential nominee used his two speeches in Nevada to open a new phase of his campaign, emphasizing the economy above all. Obama wants to pin the economic woes and growing sense of financial panic on the Republican Party and its titular head, Sen. John McCain.
“What we’ve seen in the last few days is the final verdict on this philosophy,” Obama said at Cashman Field. “It is a philosophy that has failed.”
Before a crowd of 1,500 in Elko earlier in the day, the Illinois Democrat said, “I’m running for president because we simply can’t afford an economic policy that benefited Wall Street instead of Main Street, and ended up devastating both.”
Republicans responded sharply, using a Wednesday conference call to accuse Obama of offering nothing but “talk and taxes,” while also touting McCain’s record as a reformer and saying he’d clean up the Wall Street mess.
Mike Duncan, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, said Obama is an “out-of-control tax-and-spender, and that’s not what’s needed in these times of economic downturn.”
To pay for proposals such as universal health care and a middle-class tax cut, Obama has proposed increasing taxes on families that make more than $250,000 a year, but critics contend fiscal realities will force the income floor much lower. He’s also proposed increasing the capital gains tax and the tax on dividends for families with more than $250,000 in income.
McCain spent TV appearances Tuesday railing against corporate corruption and Wall Street greed and saying he’d fix Washington’s regulatory agencies to properly reel in out-of-control financial institutions.
The Arizona senator has long supported business deregulation, though, and deregulation of the financial industry in particular.
McCain supported legislation written by one of his advisers, former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, that ended a Depression-era law preventing banks, investment companies and insurers from joining. (Former President Clinton, a Democrat, signed the law.)
Ending that restriction allowed insurance companies such as AIG to engage in risky investment schemes, leading to its downfall this week, as the U.S. government essentially took over the legendary company in exchange for an $85 billion bailout. (McCain, like Obama running mate Sen. Joseph Biden, came out against the bailout before reversing course later.)
All of this is consequential to Las Vegas, which, with its dependence on New York City for both financing and customers, could be called that city’s Western borough.
Here’s what’s happening on Wall Street and why it matters here:
Once-vaunted investment banks such as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers are dead, crippled by mountains of bad debt from faulty home mortgages in places such as Las Vegas.
Investors are nervous and pulling their money from the stock market — the Dow is down 7 percent this week alone.
That means no available capital for resort projects in Las Vegas.
“The ones that haven’t started aren’t going to, and the one that’s paused is permanently paused,” said UNLV economist Bill Robinson, referring to Echelon.
The financing for MGM Mirage’s $9.2 billion CityCenter is secure, but there will be no more high-profile projects for years. Moreover, just getting money to renovate will be difficult, Robinson said. As a result, some Las Vegas hotels will die, he said.
Robinson pointed out another effect of Wall Street woes. His back-of-the-envelope estimate is that 100,000 jobs will be lost in New York City. “No more flying their little private jets to spend a hundred grand for a weekend here,” he said.
Keith Schwer, director of UNLV’s Center for Business and Economic Research, noted that all of the region’s traditional economic indicators are down: hotel occupancy rates, spending, room rates, gaming revenue and taxable sales. Nevada’s unemployment rate stands at 6.6 percent — and shows signs of reaching 7 percent, Schwer said.
Jennifer Duffy, an analyst for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, said it was too soon to tell which candidate can best leverage the heightened economic uncertainty into support on Election Day.
McCain showed prescience in 2006 when he called for overhauls of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage giants that collapsed and recently required a government takeover.
Obama, however, made a speech in New York in the spring calling for more robust regulation of the financial markets, saying the system had devolved into a “winner-take-all, anything goes environment that helped foster devastating dislocations in our economy.”
He reiterated a message of economic populism in his Cashman Field speech, which drew 11,000 to 12,000, according to the facilities manager.
Obama spoke from a stage built over home plate and pantomimed some baseball swings before opening up on McCain, with relish.
He mocked McCain for saying he’d take on the “old boys’ network” in Washington: “The old boys’ network? In the McCain campaign, that’s called a staff meeting.”
There was more mockery for McCain, who called for a 9/11-style commission to investigate the causes of the financial meltdown: “We don’t need a commission to tell us how we got into this mess. We need a president who will lead us out of this mess, and that’s why I’m running.”
As for short-term economic solutions, Obama called for a $50 billion emergency economic stimulus and help for homeowners who face foreclosure.
One note of irony in Obama’s Nevada trip: With the stock market reeling, investors threw money into gold, with the price increasing $70 Wednesday alone to close up 9 percent at $850.50 an ounce.
The city as enriched by that development as any in the world: Obama’s first stop of the day, gold-laden Elko, Nevada.
(Editor's note: This story originally placed the crowd estimate at 14,000, but the facilities manager later lowered his estimate.)
Sun reporter David McGrath Schwartz contributed to this story from Elko.
Discussion: 25 comments so far…
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Obama's only response is to fear-monger and hope for a total meltdown of the economy.
By talking down business and the economy, and playing the blame game, Obama hope to win.
Obama also has carefully not been involved in any financial legistation, so he has no fingerprints on anything.
Vote Present-- Vote present
Fear-monger? LOL, drawing attention to the crisis on Wall Street, the crisis that the rest of us are well-aware of, is not "fear-mongering." It's observing reality, Future.
The American people trust Obama more than McCain with the economy for a simple reason: McCain represents four more years of a Bush-style deregulated market nightmare.
It's disingenuous of McCain to suddenly pull a 180 and come out in favor of more regulation, when he's worked for two decades with his buddies in the Republican party to set the stage for the mortgage meltdown and the investment banking collapse.
It's disingenuous of McCain when his right-hand man on the economy is none other than the man who WROTE the legislation which set the stage for the current collapse, Phil Gramm. Even knowing the chaos that Gramm precipitated, McCain said he would consider Gramm to be Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
That's basically putting the fox in charge of the hen house.
And it smacks of more Republican croneyism, sorta like nominating Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court.
And what is McCain's grand plan? A commission? After he's elected? So he's not planning any action between now and... sometime next February?
There's a reason the American people trust Barack Obama more than John McCain when it comes to the economy. He was talking about stricter mortgage guidelines... years ago. He was talking about increased oversight and regulation on the lending industry... years ago.
And McCain said he's not well informed on the economy, and when pressed last year to give specifics on what he would do to help the housing market, he sat in silence for minutes before regurgitating talking points.
Obama's plan is at barackobama.com/plan.
Where's McCain's plan?
Well, drat, thebs got here before I did. Well written. I agree. One does not need to "monger" fear in this day and age. Reality is doing that for us, thank you. You can't fix a problem if you don't acknowledge it first. McCain's "plan" is to "study it." And, yes, it's true that Reid and Pelosi just yesterday proposed a "study it" solution; but they are not running for President, so let's not confuse them with Obama. At this point, I want to hear specifics of what the candidates propose to do. Obama has laid out his plan. Why is McCain not willing to be as publically vulnerable? Do you really want someone who will wait to unveil policies until after being elected? If so, you get what you deserve. Unfortunately, the rest of us will also get what you deserve.
Obama's only response to the market maelstrom is to pile-on, blame, and fear-monger the situation in the hope of a total meltdown of the economy.
Obama is sticking to his classic Democratic plan of raising taxes, nationalize industries, and reduce foreign trade to get out of the mess.
By talking down the economy and demonizing people who would making over $200K, small businesses, worker productivity, investors, foreign trade, and playing the blame game (Republican caused it), Obama hope to win.
Obama also has carefully not been involved in any financial legislation, so he has no fingerprints on anything. Obama has not announced how he will address leveraging (risk reserve) of financial instruments, transaction transparency, and total system liquidity, the low dollar, and inflation.
To help Obama, he has enlisted several un-registered lobbyists and others including:
-Fannie Mae ex-CEO Jim Johnson,
-Fannie Mae ex-CEO Franklin Raines,
-Robert Rubin, Citigroup
-Robert Reich, ex-labor secretary
-Harry Reid
-Nancy Pelosi
Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden is promoting that paying higher taxes is the patriotic thing to do for Americans. Biden told ABC's "Good Morning America" on 9-18-08, that, in his words, "it's time to be patriotic " time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut."
Future, you've gone on at length about your feelings about Obama and intentionally misstating Obama's plan.
Where's McCain's plan?
What is McCain's plan?
How is McCain's plan different from Bush's plan (or lackthereof)?
If John McCain couldn't run Hewlett Packard, how can he be trusted to handle the largest economy in the world?
Obama thoughts on AIG..........nothing.
Obama has advisors that are neck deep in the Fannie Mae meltdown and they made millions by cooking the books.
Gaffe machine Biden says it is our patriotic duty to pay higher taxes.
Reid said lately, "No ones knows what to do".
High gas prices slammed Las Vegas and put many out of work. The Democrats plan is to have a very weak offshore drilling plan. The Democrats are very weak when dealing with the economy.
The Democrats main goal for the next two weeks.....get back to vacation.
Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden is promoting that paying higher taxes is the patriotic thing to do for Americans. Biden told ABC's "Good Morning America" on 9-18-08, that, in his words, "it's time to be patriotic " time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut."
This reinforces Obama's singular answer to everything
- higher taxes to spend your way out of a recession
If you want some insight into the Obama/Biden plan for the economy, go here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/magazi.... Obama addresses the economy at length, their plans, his economic background and tutelage. He addresses your concerns about "address leveraging (risk reserve) of financial instruments, transaction transparency, and total system liquidity, the low dollar, and inflation." Their plan will raise taxes minimally for those of us, and I am in that group, that make over $250,000 per year. They will raise them even more for those who make over $9 million per year. Everyone else will get a tax cut. And offshore drilling won't equal more gas in the tanks for MANY YEARS. . . .
Future, you're basically advocating doing nothing.
McCain's economic plan just continues the Bush policies. It does NOTHING to spur economic growth. Had Bush's economic plans worked, we wouldn't be in the middle of the meltdown.
So you can choose to stick your head in the sand and continue on the present course, which is headed toward widespread economic collapse, or you can adopt the same policies as the Clinton administration, which dug us out of Bush 41's economy and put us back on track.
You're advocating for the guy who wants to put the man most responsible for the mortgage meltdown, Phil Gramm, as the head of the Federal Reserve.
The definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
In effect, McCain's continuation of the disastrous Bush policies is insanity.
Sorry-I must confess I do not base my decision making on the "stuff" that comes from the NY Times.
But the NY times does conclude that Obama's basic approach is to tax us out of any problem, and the NY Times is on-board with that.
Vote for Obama, and
Vote for his un-registered meltdown lobbyists and others including:
-Fannie Mae ex-CEO Jim Johnson,
-Fannie Mae ex-CEO Franklin Raines,
-Robert Rubin, Citigroup
-Robert Reich, ex-labor secretary
-Harry Reid
-Nancy Pelosi
Obama and Biden are going back to Clinton for a redistribution economic model which is proven failure.
Remember Clinton's recession (that nobody will talk about) which was due to Clinton's tax increase.
This amount of money taken out of the consuming and investing public resulted in a precipitate decline in sales by and investments in the manufacturing sector. This is evident by:
-The long 17-month contraction in the ISM manufacturing index starting in July of 2000, causing the lost of millions of manufacturing jobs, which helped drive the country into recession.
-The unemployment rate went from 3.9% (Dec 2000) up to 6.0% (Dec 2002)
-The March 24, 2000 to October 9, 2002 S&P 500 Index drop of 49.1% was caused in part by a need by people to sell stock to pay increased taxes.
-Median Household income crest at $42,000 in 1999, and dropped in 2000 and 2001.
-Corporate debt increased by 125% between 1995 and 1999 to $2.6 trillion; and corporate tax shelter trickery (Enron, Global Crossing, and Tyco) took off.
-Real GDP was just 0.5% in 2001.
Very simple, were you better off during Clinton's presidency or Bush's presidency?
If the entire country voted on that simple question, Obama would have a landslide victory.
McCain can try to distance himself all he wants from the republicans, but HE IS a republican and will continue more of the same. If you truly enjoy todays economy, then I'd understand your vote for McCain.
I was really excited when Sarah Palin was picked to run for vp with McCain but i've switched to Obama. i'm sick of all the lies in the McCain ads, twisting Obama's record. This is disgraceful. We can't pick a president of the United States of America like we vote on American Idol. Come on folks! Everybody take a deep breath and let's start using our head and THINKING about what we are doing. Don't vote for McCain because you see one ad that mocks Barack Obama. Don't vote for McCain because you can relate to Sarah. (So can i, but it's not good enough to just like and relate to her.) Our country is in a crisis and we need to THINK clearly about who will be the better leader to get us out of the mess thats been made of our economy. It looks to me like McCain and Palin would just make it worse because theya re more like Bush.
Hmm, I am confused. WE experienced unprecedented growth under Clinton, and when he left office, we also had an unprecedented governmental surplus. And, the Obama/Biden plan doesn't just advocate raising taxes, they want to create new jobs by improving infrastructure and developing alternative energy sources, as well as limited drilling. And if you don't like the NYTimes, and it is too bad b/c this is an objective and very informative article, how about www.bloomberg.com? http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=2...
Alan Greenspan, I think you know him, appointed federal reserve chairman by Reagan, says McCain's TAX PLAN WON'T WORK!!!
TrackMom, Gov. Palin is (was?) a compelling choice for the GOP, and seems very much like "one of us". But when you start getting to know her, you realize she's just like every other crooked politician out there, maybe worse, seeing as even after her lies are exposed she keeps on repeating them. Thank you for seeing past the facade and realizing that just because a candidate seems to be like us, doesn't mean that she is FOR us.
Regarding Joe Biden's "patriotic" remark, when our country, or a part of it, or even other countries, are in crisis, what do we do? We open our wallets and try to help. When a hurricane or a tornado or an earthquake hits, it is our patriotic duty to help those who are in a state of emergency. Our country is currently in a state of emergency, and yes, paying a bit more in taxes is what needs to be done in order to get our country out of the hole it's in. And remember that Obama's tax plan would raise taxes on individuals making $200k+ or families making $250k+ a year, so those of us who make nowhere near that would actually get a tax cut. McCain would keep Bush's disastrous tax policies and put the last nail on the coffin of our country's economy.
Obama/Patriot Joe want to increase taxes on captial job creation investments.
Las Vegas does not need jobs?
Obama is the only one with a vision for where this country should go. If McSame was honorable, he would stop running ads that spout lies and he would muzzle his attack dogs.
McSame's vision for the economy is to further saddle debt on the middle class and redistribute wealth to the upper 4% who make more money than the lower 50% of families in the United States.
Vote your economic interest; Vote for Obama.
I just LOVE the logic of the Republican hive mind.
First, let's start by ripping away every last shred of regulatory oversight so that the free market can shower us all with blessings and goodness.
Rich financiers proceed to start creating complex financial contortions that no one really understands, but so long as Wall Street is making money, who cares?
Rich people get REALLY rich. Middle class people don't, but as Wall Street's happy to let them borrow against a swelling real estate bubble, they don't really notice. Poor people continue to get screwed, but no one cares about them.
Real estate collapses. Middle class people get hosed and lose their homes en masse. But Wall Street's still making money, so no one really cares.
Then those complex financial instruments that no one understands? They're worth exactly... nothing! Oopsie!
Wall Street firms teeter on the brink of collapse. THAT, people care about.
Uncle Sam Bernanke writes (to date) $900 billion in checks to bail out one firm after another, paid for by the American taxpayer. Uncle Sam gains three shiny new assets -- AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In other countries this would be called "socialism," but here it is a pragmatic response to ensure the vitality of our free market way of life.
Today, rumors spread that the Fed will create a "repository" for all of that debt that no one understands, and no one really wants now. Translation: Uncle Sam and the American taxpayer will foot the entire bill for Wall Street's shenanigans.
Those rich people who made the mess? Still really rich.
But suggest that the wealthy pay more in taxes to help pay for that trillion-dollar clean-up, and the Republican hive mind screams bloody murder.
Because that, you see, would be un-American. Only the little people pay for their mistakes. Rich people get Uncle Sam to bail them out, then throw a tantrum until they get another tax cut.
"Obama is the only one with a vision for where this country should go"
What vision?
All he has done the last few days is say things are really bad.
He has offered NO SOLUTIONS.
He has a plan to raise taxes on job creation capital investment...no wait....he is reconsidering that for he now saying that might hurt the economy....LOL..
His gaffe machine friend, Biden, said it patriotic to raise taxes during a down economy.
Perhaps he is trying to advice from Reid who said "No ones knows what to do".
Or perhaps he is trying to get advice from his two Fannie Mae ex-CEO's advisors who made millions of dollars in bonuses while cooking the books.
It seems under the republicans trikle down theory the only thing that trikles down is the urine and the tab to pay for helping the rich get richer.
Obama will *LOWER* your federal income tax - not increase it. That is unless you earn more than $250,000 a year. Obama will increase the tax of one earning $2M (2 million dollars) a year by $701,855 (11.5% increase). He will decrease the tax of one earning $20,000 a year by $892 (3.6% cut). Yes, he is increasing the tax on the rich by 11.5% and decreasing the tax on the low income by 3.6%.
McCain's tax cut for one earning over $2M (2 million dollars) in one year is $269,364 (4%). His cut for one earning $20,000 in a year is a measly $113.00 (.5%). Yes, he is giving the rich a bigger tax break than the low income - 8 times bigger!!!!.
See for yourself. Here is proof!!!!!!
Here is a link to a calculator you can use to see how much of a tax break you will get with Obama's plan. (I haven't been able to find one yet for the McCain plan. Why is that????.)
http://alchemytoday.com/obamataxcut/
Here is a link to a very clear tax cut comparison chart. This chart is referenced in many newspapers and magazine articles.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...
You can not lower taxes for those 44% of the people who do not pay taxes now.
95-44 means only 51% could possibly get a tax break.
The recession in 2000 was caused by the same factors that are currently giving us problems. The Fed cranked rates and the price of oil went to the moon. While Wall Street only crashed the stock market in 2000, they are showing their new found expertise in market crashing by also including housing and the whole financial system along with the stock market this time. With the financial industries large growth and expanding reach, it's no coincidence that the scandals and crashes get bigger and bigger as we have so many more bodies going for the gold.
We have people claiming this guys dereglation did this, some other guys did that, and yada yada yada. The truth is the only law Wall Street obeys is the one that says "Grab as much as you can as fast as you can using any means possible." Wall Street is the place where it's not illegal if you can get away with it.
Where do we get the info that 44% do not pay taxes?