WALL ST. PANS BAM

[bijou]

ON the day that President Obama signed the much- hyped "stimulus bill" into law - one of the largest spending plans in US history, billed as nothing short of a savior for a US economy heading toward a possible Great Depression - the stock market reacted loudly and resolutely, falling nearly 300 points.

No one can deny that Obama's been dealt a crummy hand - he took office with a weak economy and a banking system in shambles. And the markets may ultimately rebound if the "stimulus" actually does a little stimulating.

But the consensus building on Wall Street is that this president doesn't look to be up to the job of fixing the economy.

Talk to any investor, and he'll tell you how Obama's plan offers up nothing more than tired solutions, pork-barrel spending that will do little to reverse the economy's woes - and may make a bad situation worse.

Accurate or not, that perception is growing among market professionals - and not just Wall Street's sizable contingent of conservatives, but also those who voted for him, Democrats and middle-of-the-road Republicans who believed he had the intelligence and the temperament to lead the country out of the crisis.

One such investment-community supporter recently e-mailed me: "So far, Obama isn't hitting it out of the park - but it's early." Another hedge-fund investor who supported the president was more rueful yesterday, saying that it's the "Dems time to f--k up; they won the election."  ...

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