History? That's for suckers
Sharp lawyer he may be, but Obama's grasp of economic history is somewhat lacking, says Dougal Paver.
There's been a bit too much lauding of Barack Obama on this blog of late. Look, the chap hasn't done much yet.
More to the point, what he's threatening to do is downright stupid. Dangerous, even.
You see, part of Obama's brilliant plan to save the world economy is to reduce the total amount of trade conducted, thereby lengthening and deepening the recession for all. It's called protectionism, it's only ever delivered woeful results and it's at the core of the Great One's plan to save America.
Even President Brown has had the wit to point out it's a crackpot idea. (Forgive me, though: did I detect the hand of Lord Mandelson in that one?).
In message management terms it poses a challenge for Obama, of course: economic libertarians are providing a cogent and powerful argument against his plans and the media is revelling in this early challenge to the president's authority.
And his greatest problem, of course, is that history shows us that protectionism really is one of the stupidest ideas ever invented. Let's see if the Great Orator can talk his way out of that, then.
COMMENTS
Martyn Best - Mon 2nd Feb 2009
Very good point - and we shall indeed see.
To be fair to the man, he's not actually committed to any protectionsim, and he seems to be resiting a "Made in America" clause becoming standard in his bail-out plan. Let's hope so, as we know that history is not for suckers - just usually forgotten by them.
Then we will establish if the recent blog-lauding has been justified.
POST A COMMENT
