The Pres. does have quite a bit of influence on the market, and the market is the reason the economy is in the toilet at the moment. This particular president seems to be tailoring his actions to the fact he's going to take after his old-man and serve only a single term. In the meantime, he's routing as much cash to Texas as he can. I'm surprised the media haven't picked up on this. Nobody should have been surprised that the high-tech market tanked once saturation of the hardware market was reached, and once the market geniuses who pumped up the "DOT-COM" stocks finally figured out they'd been fooling themselves. The Clinton administration was able to forestall the correction yet to come, however, and the market, in several sectors, is WAY overvalued. I don't have much in stocks any more, having moved to greener pastures. I'd not be surprised to see a more general correction on the order of 75% downward in many market sectors, and unemployment figures into 20%+ for a decade or so. If you're into trading, I'd say look for issues that you can sell short. You're right in that the Pres can't FIX the economy overnight, but he can surely wreck it in a day or so. Dick