Steve Wynn, By Articulating the Fright, Confirms the Timing of the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Economy

It is accurate to say that what Wynn describes in the following excerpt was correctly anticipated three years ago full transcript here):

And I'm saying it bluntly, that this administration is the greatest wet blanket to business, and progress and job creation in my lifetime. And I can prove it and I could spend the next 3 hours giving you examples of all of us in this market place that are frightened to death about all the new regulations, our healthcare costs escalate, regulations coming from left and right. A President that seems, that keeps using that word redistribution. Well, my customers and the companies that provide the vitality for the hospitality and restaurant industry, in the United States of America, they are frightened of this administration. And it makes you slow down and not invest your money.

… And those of us who have business opportunities and the capital to do it are going to sit in fear of the President. And a lot of people don't want to say that. They'll say, God, don't be attacking Obama. Well, this is Obama's deal and it's Obama that's responsible for this fear in America.

The guy keeps making speeches about redistribution and maybe we ought to do something to businesses that don't invest, their holding too much money. We haven't heard that kind of talk except from pure socialists. Everybody's afraid of the government and there's no need soft peddling it, it's the truth. It is the truth. And that's true of Democratic businessman and Republican businessman … And I'm telling you that the business community in this company is frightened to death of the weird political philosophy of the President of the United States. And until he's gone, everybody's going to be sitting on their thumbs.

Wynn could have substituted two words for “sitting on their thumbs” which lefties ridicule but which perfectly describe what has happened: “Going Galt.”

We've all strident talk of “redistribution,” punitive taxation, intense regulation, energy starvation, and the like for years. But in May or June of 2008, it became clear that a group of those led by Barack Obama holding those core beliefs had a real chance of gaining enough power to make it happen. Until May or June 2008, there was at least a ghost of a chance that Hillary Clinton and not Barack Obama would be the nominee of the Democratic Party, and that sane heads would prevail among the supposedly committed party superdelegates who in reality had a chance to change their minds at any time they liked ahead of their vote at the convention. While no angel, it could be said, based largely on her husband's two terms, that Hillary Clinton would not be as indifferent as Obama had been towards a tanking economy and a brutal job market, and would have changed direction if things weren't working. It has become clear that Obama won't, even after an electoral shellacking that made 1994 look like the traditional definition of a tea party.

A significant number of businesspeople, entrepreneurs, and investors caught the May-June 2008 sea change early on, and as a result, the economy, which was barely holding on, began to seriously deteriorate. That's when the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) Economy began. In short order, in July 2008, the recession as normal people define it began

It didn't take long for the business community as a whole to get up to speed on what it faces, and Wynn is right: Economic malaise will continue until the Obama administration's regime of fear changes, and it's too late for Barack Obama to change that, even if he wanted to. Because at this point, no one will believe it.

_________________________________________________

UPDATE: Here's an irony worthy of discussion.

In the full conference call transcript, you'll find Wynn praising another country. Guess which one –

September will be our fifth anniversary in the _______ in ______, and we love it there. We are so grateful to be part of that market and to be allowed to participate in that community. We find the political environment, the regulatory environment, the human resource environment that we're in to be absolutely delicious. Life is quite straightforward in ________. The government is predictable. Our employees are eminently trainable. They're anxious to please. They have a fabulous attitude, whether they're local ______ people, __________ people, folks from the __________, they're just wonderful and all of that's come together to help us deliver the kind of product that we've always been delivering.

Here's the complete quote:

September will be our fifth anniversary in the People's Republic of China in Macau, and we love it there. We are so grateful to be part of that market and to be allowed to participate in that community. We find the political environment, the regulatory environment, the human resource environment that we're in to be absolutely delicious. Life is quite straightforward in China. The government is predictable. Our employees are eminently trainable. They're anxious to please. They have a fabulous attitude, whether they're local Macau people, mainland Chinese people, folks from the Philippines, they're just wonderful and all of that's come together to help us deliver the kind of product that we've always been delivering.

There are obviously two ways to take this:

1. Wynn likes the predictability of a state-run Communist regime, which is obviously not a good thing.
2. The Communist regime has become sufficiently capitalist, or at least has become that way in Macau, that it has set its people and businesses free to create wealth and prosperity and is functioning at a higher level of economic freedom than the U.S. under Obama.

So which one is it?

UPDATE 2: Yes, it is unfortunate, as seen in the transcript, that Wynn still sees Harry Reid as being on his side. In that sense, he still doesn't get it. He's in a distinct minority in the business community.