Well, it looks like That One Who Was Going To Make The Temperature Fall and Lower the Oceans has a little egg on his face when it comes to his Not-So-Midas Touch on things economic.

Caterpillar, who Obama back in Febraury was hailing as a prime example of a company that was going to benefit immediately (if not enormously) from the Porkulous Bill has just posted its 1st quarter numbers and they are about as dismal-looking as Perez Hilton wearing the latest Barney Frank creation.

Their first loss in 16 years. Good job, Obama.

Ironically enough, 16 years ago was when another young, Democrat president was just starting out and had also just signed a “stimulus” bill.

As reported in Bloomberg: (Hat-tip: Michelle Malkin)

April 21 (Bloomberg) — Caterpillar Inc., the world’s largest maker of bulldozers and excavators, posted its first quarterly net loss in 16 years and said full-year profit and sales will trail its previous forecast amid a global recession.

The first-quarter net loss of $112 million, or 19 cents a share, compares with net income of $922 million, or $1.45, a year earlier, the Peoria, Illinois-based company said in a statement today. Revenue dropped 22 percent to $9.23 billion.

“The sales decline is problematic given a relatively high fixed-cost base, which suggests weakness for some time,” said Joel Levington, director of corporate credit at New York-based Hyperion Brookfield Asset Management Inc.

Caterpillar predicted the U.S. recession in October 2007 and said today it expects the world economy to decline about 1.3 percent this year. Chief Executive Officer Jim Owens has cut more than 24,000 jobs since December and imposed shutdowns, partial workweeks and executive pay cuts to cope with the global credit crisis and longest U.S. slump in a quarter century.

The company’s shares rose at midday, after Owens said on a conference call that China’s stimulus spending may help later this year and set the stage for growth in 2010. Excluding some costs, profit was 39 cents a share, exceeding analysts’ average estimate of 5 cents a share in a Bloomberg survey.

As Yogi Berra said, “It’s deja vu all over again.”

| Show Comments(3) | Hide Comments(3)