President Obama's popularity has fallen greatly, even among his previous supporters.

The U.S. economy is suffering from a lack of leadership, which starts at the top, according to Mort Zuckerman, Chairman of Boston Properties.

Zuckerman, who endorsed Obama in The Daily News (he's the tabloid's chairman and co-publisher) and worked on his campaign in 2008 is today "very disappointed" and "dismayed" in the President.

In addition to disagreeing with specific policies — most notably the 2009 stimulus package — Zuckerman says the President is "playing politics" with the economy, the very thing the White House claims the GOP is doing.

"We must get out of this political game where you play politics with every issue," he says, chiding President Obama for scolding Congress during his recent speech on jobs and subsequently campaigning in the districts of House Minority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Oh).

"This is politics to the death," he laments.

Looking ahead to

A week ago Wednesday the Federal Reserve announced its $400 billion plan — dubbed 'operation twist' — to lower long-term interests rates after its earlier pledge to keep short-term interest rates low until mid-2013. But the move did little to appease markets. (See: "Very Unusual" Fed Action Fails To Boost Animal Spirits: Dow Drops 285)

Axel Merk, president & CIO, Merk Investments, agrees with the market sentiment and calls the recent easing flat out "useless." He believes this move is a means to a greater end to be put forth by Chairman Ben Bernanke later this year.

Bernanke is really "setting the stage" for a third round of quantitative easing, says Merk. "He is just doing it much more slowly than many of us would have anticipated" in an effort to prime markets for additional money printing.

Why? Merk, who has a long record of being bullish on the euro, believes Bernanke has yet to see the dollar fall as much as he would like; the Fed chairman can still use this one key tool to