All I want for Christmas is Obama’s ‘Big Bang’

After his welcome victory in last month’s US Presidential election, the burden of expectation now lies heavily on the shoulders of one man – Barack Hussein Obama. With his January 20th inauguration in Washington DC fast looming, I along with millions (billions?) of others hope that the President-Elect will be able to deliver on his many important election promises.

There have been promising signs to date, though. Obama’s appointment of Rahm Emanuel as his Chief of Staff augurs well, as do the inclusion of such Clinton-era luminaries as Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers on his transitional economic advisory board. Hillary Clinton as the Administration’s Secretary of State is both a very apt and canny move, also.

I particularly like Obama’s proposed ‘Big Bang’ approach to reviving the flagging US economy, whereby he’s combining short-term economic stimuli (billions for Detroit’s collapsing car industry and tax cuts for middle-income earners, as examples) alongside wide-ranging, long-term investments in important public infrastructure areas such as alternative energy, health care and education. Westminster should be taking notes, methinks.

After the cronyism and sheer idiocy of the Bush/Cheney era (you won’t be missed, Dubya), it’s a tantalising prospect, isn’t it? – A new president imbued with many attributes of some great men who have gone before him (the sincerity of JFK, the passion of Martin Luther-King, and the intelligence of Bill Clinton), whose heartfelt desire to ‘do the right thing’ aligns tremendous social vision with a careful eye to restoring fiscal discipline.

I love a good investment as much as the next entrepreneur, so thank you, Barack Obama. Your positive, ‘YES WE CAN’ message is just the tonic the world needed to hear this Christmas – politically, socially and economically.