Obamamania and High Expectations

"If the economy's good for people from the bottom up, it's going to be good for everybody."

Barack Obama's now famous conversation with "Joe the Plumber" made the Ohio-based small business owner famous, but the time he spends explaining his tax policy says a lot about why he's so popular in the US and elsewhere.

Expectations are high and Obama's first 100 days -- however arbitrary that timescale -- will be pivotal. Beyond US shores, the UK is bound to be affected by any upturn in confidence among American consumers. But Ismail Erturk, a senior lecturer in banking at Manchester Business School, has warned UK business not to expect too much.

"The rest of the world needs the US consumers to spend money and its financial institutions to circulate capital around the world. However Obama's announced economic policies concentrate on infrastructural investments in energy, technology, education, and health, not on increasing consumer spending or consumer debt," says Erturk in the Manchester Evening News.

Obama's got his work cut out for him at home -- George W. Bush leaves behind the worst employment growth record of any president since World War II, according to the latest research, and the financial system has been decimated. His team already has an $850bn stimulus plan in mind that is said to include $275bn in tax cuts (despite his conversation with Joe the Plumber).

But business and economic demands will wait till tomorrow. Today, it's worldwide "Obamamania" -- with live coverage here.
(Photo: Jetheriot, CC2.0)