Well, the president doesn't have much power. It's really up to many more political figures than him. Furthermore, the government is already quite intertwined with many industries, especially the financial one.
As insiders, the key execs are limited as to when they can buy and sell. And there is (or should be) some pressure on them to buy lots of stock and hold it. They have to report buys and sells, and if they're not buying or not holding on to stock they're given, I view them and the company with suspicion.
Yeah, all else more or less equal, I'll invest in companies ran by guys like Steve Jobs and Lee Iacocca, who took $1 annual salaries throughout much of their careers and made their $ off bonuses and stock. You can easily find out how much $ these guys make, how much stock they own / buy / sell each quarter, etc when searching online.
And the basis for a crash would be ... ? So other than the usual fears from speculation on what is possible, are there concrete reasons to believe that a crash, in U.S. or global terms, is imminent? Since we are starting to get a decent historical record to work with through many types of conditions, including world wars and their aftermath, what defines a crash and what would precipitate it? Is a decline of 20% a crash? 40%? 80%? In the infamous crash of '29, it was out-of-control valuations that developed from huge margin debt and the belief that the market could never go down despite some troubling economic data. Once all this inevitably became clear and unsustainable, it developed into a quick domino-style collapse of over 50% across just a couple of trading days. The "tech bubble" of '99/'00 was a very similar valuation dynamic but focused primarily on just one market sector and exchange (NASDAQ). The 2008/09 "great recession" was a little slower than the '29 action, and though very destructive to capital, did not result in the level of follow-on economic annihilation of the whole country in the way the Depression crash did. Rather than stock valuations, this last one was due more to systemic issues in the economy, and specifically in housing valuation and mortgage debt. Even that was not universal, though, as prime farmland in the Midwest, especially, continued to soar in value and still hasn't seen a real correction. Valuations now are high, but not extraordinarily bizarre or based on nothing ("irrational exuberance," as Fed chief Greenspan put it). What is there systemically that would give rise to a crash? A few months ago, some speculated that maybe the Fed pulling back from bond purchases, but instead interest rates went down even further. The U.S. Government's debt is ridiculously high, but in a rather silly arrangement, it is denominated in a currency that happens to be printed by the debtor, and upon which the rest of the world depends heavily. While a solid correction is probably needed, it seems that only an unforeseen "black swan" event of terrible magnitude could force a crash in the immediate future.
It's hard to say. The market could crash but could doesnt mean it will. Any time the public thinks they know something is going to happen, they are usually wrong. Always a step behind. The magicians have you looking in one direction while they act in another.
