Andanh.com

The conventional wisdom is that stocks respond well when the Federal Reserve is cutting interest rates, but in truth most of the positive impact might come later.

"History suggests that (the Standard & Poor's 500 index) enjoys strong gains once the Fed puts (its) interest-rate ax away," writes Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank in Chicago.

Of the nine easing cycles since 1984, the S&P 500 gained an average 21.5 percent over the 12  months following the final rate cut, he reports. All of those nine cycles produced a positive stock-market return - the worst was an advance of 9.8 percent over a stretch in 1992-1993.

"While the first six months may be rough, one year out has been smoother sailing," Ablin reports.

The Fed recently brought short-term rates down to 2 percent from 5.25 percent over a six-month period, helping to stabilize the dollar

There is no substance behind Barack Obama's claim of a new politics. His policy proposals are from Liberalism 101.

However, there may be something to his claim of wanting to play the political game differently.

Hillary Clinton's recent citation of the assassination of Robert Kennedy in June as a reason why she should stay in the presidential race was a major gaffe. Obama's status as the first Black with a legitimate shot at being president makes concerns about his safety particularly acute.

And sure enough, the immediate reaction from the Obama campaign was to attack the gaffe. "Senator Clinton's statement ...was unfortunate and has no place in this campaign," a spokesman immediately fired.

Obama himself, however, took a different tact the next day. "I have learned," he said, "that when you are campaigning for as many months as Senator Clinton and I have been campaigning, sometimes you get careless in terms of the statements that you make, and I think that is what happened here."

Now, a cynic can say that Obama had an aide fire the missile while he played above the fray. And there is the counterindication of Obama purposely distorting what John McCain said about keeping troops in Iraq for 100 years.

But I think Obama genuinely wants to reduce some of the mindless partisanship that characterizes modern campaign discourse. It will be interesting to see how well that commitment holds up under the heat of a general election campaign.