The emerging economic policy of the Obama administration can - at best - be described as enlightened left wing policies, the kind that has been practised by the better of the European social democrats. The usefulness of these might be a revelation for the government-fearing US conservative elite, but economic policy innovation it is not.
There goes our hope for global leadership.
A vision about creating global policy institutions? Global regulatory framework? Global fiscal and monetary policy harmonisation? Leading the world to find a globally legitimate set of institutions, and thus transforming his enormous political capital into finding a global political channel to achieve all of these?
Nope.
It would have taken a ‘world leader’ to create a new, global institutional framework with foresight, in preparation of what is coming, rather than always moving as the reaction to the latest immediate pressure. At this time, Obama is the only person who has the global clout to do that. All others who could have done it have either already burned their capital in futile actions, or are yet to emerge, but are still not on the horizon. And Obama is not doing it.
Now, we will have to wait for the global economy to slide deeper into recession, and then see how global governance innovation inevitably emerges as a response. Expensive entertainment.
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A similar point.
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