This Tuesday, Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States of America (and thanks to Chief Justice Rogers had to be sworn in again on Wednesday).
In Norway, and most other countries in Europe (let alone the world), this has been heralded as a historic moment which finally will bring change to US policy and the world in general.
I don't necessarily think this will come true, although Obama has been busy making good on campaign promises already. Obama has been hyped to extents never before seen, much because of his eloquence, charisma, and race (yes, I said it). In his inauguration speech he actually used a lot of American presidential clichés, but he did this rather more convincingly than his predecessor (who's probably able to mispronounce the word "no"...). It will be interesting to see if Obama brings any substance in policy to the words he used in his speech. I think he will be hard pressed to deliver very much.
The main reason is that the all-consuming issue of his first (and possibly last) term as president will be the global financial crisis. And I don't think Obama's policies (Keynesian in every respect) will be able to deal sufficiently with the underlying reasons for the problem: debt and an economy based on bubbles.
No amount of hope or change can change that.
61
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment