Magazines Archives - 2009 January

The Obama victory: Will it benefit Asia?
Story 2 - Special Report

Will the positive change advocated during the US election campaign happen? What can an Obama administration do to make the world better? Will Asia benefit? Jennee Grace U Rubrico finds the answers.

ON January 20, US President-elect Barack Obama is set to take his oath of office. As he takes the helm of the world’s biggest economy, expectations — and hopes — run high.

Clinching the presidency on a campaign that advocated positive change in the midst of the downward spiral of the US economy, Obama is now saddled with the challenge of stemming, even reversing, the recession that the country is in.

This, he has to do under the watchful eye not only of the American public, but of a world that is experiencing the worst economic slump in decades as a consequence of the difficulties faced by
the economic powerhouse.

To say that the challenge he faces is tough might be an understatement. In a special report released last December called Obama: The World Awaits, UKbased intelligence provider Business Monitor International (BMI) noted that with what is happening around the world, “the Obama honeymoon may come to an end faster than he might have hoped”.

“What can an Obama administration do to make things better? Not much, in our view. Most of the problems in the economy will simply take time to work out. And excessive government interference may make things worse. At the end of the day, this recession can’t be stopped, it can merely be contained and, even then, not very much,” was BMI’s forecast.

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