The stock market has greeted our new president with a resounding Bronx cheer.

An anti-business, anti-Wall Street, anti-wealth tone has been set early by Obama that's both disconcerting and dangerous, and the capital markets don't like it one bit.

It stands in sharp contrast to the far more business/market friendly posture of the Clinton administration that gave us our 1990s economy.

Clinton got it, Obama doesn't.

At its roots, it brings into question his understanding of the capital markets and the vital role they play in our economy. Beneath the perception of an outof- control casino lies a capital formation function that's been responsible for 200 years of growth and prosperity.

It's hard to imagine what America would look like without Wall Street contributions; no iPods or iPhones, no Big Macs or diet Cokes, no Starbucks or Amgen.

Indeed, of the 10,000 largest companies in the U.S., all but a relative handful have tapped our capital markets to grow from fledgling enterprises into successful businesses and global powerhouses, creating many fortunes and hundreds of millions of jobs in the process.

It's the American way, and it has made us a great nation.

It's early, and President Obama said he would listen to the markets. Let's hope he gets the message. He should look to work with and promote our capital markets and private enterprise rather than attack and denigrate them.

Class warfare rhetoric doesn't play well on Wall Street. Kevin R. Shanley Westlake Village