Black, Red and Green Obama
Published in Le Monde
(France) on 8 May 2009
by Frédéric Lemaître (link to original)
The press may be singing Barack Obama’s praises after his first 100 days in the White House, but this young man has got me worried. Every day brings yet more terrible news. I’ll pass over the decision to make public the horrors practiced by the CIA, a subject which falls outside my expertise, even though that subordination of realpolitik to morality seems to me to bode ill. Tony Blair would never have done such a thing, nor would our former French foreign minister, Hubert Védrine.
No, the fundamental issue here is the economy. We might have hoped that his provisional intention to create four million jobs in 10 years, announced during his first days in office, was not to be regarded as a serious commitment. But on the contrary, it’s all going ahead. Despite objections from some quarters, the Obama administration has just launched its support for the use of ethanol as a substitute for oil. Above all, the president is placing special emphasis on new technologies. Thirty billion dollars are devoted to such technologies in his rescue package, and 900,000 new jobs in the sector are to be created very quickly. Unlike during the Clinton era, this is not a question of innovation for innovation’s sake. Priority has been given to three areas: health, the electric grid and internet broadband. At this rate, Europe – which had expected to be the most competitive economy in 2010 – has cause to worry.
Worst of all, this president, not content with being “green”, is deploying a hostile policy against the business world. His handling of the crisis in the motor industry is revealing. Having sacked the boss of General Motors, he is now going to hand over the keys to both GM and Chrysler to the auto workers’ union, the United Auto Workers, which is poised to become the principal shareholder in the two companies. Some optimists have been explaining that this is the best way to get the workers to agree to restructuring, but the shareholders have lost almost everything. Thanks, Mr Obama!
Le Monde was not wrong in February, when it ran its headline that Obama was positioning himself clearly “on the left”. His fiscal policy confirms it. First of all there was the tax rise for high earners. We can skip over the fact that, thanks to Bernard Madoff’s friends, most of those dubbed “rich” by the press had hoped to evade the tax rise by means of a few, judicious tax haven investments. Their hopes proved in vain. Obama still has the tax havens in his sights, nonetheless. The facilities allowing multinationals to pay only 2.3 percent tax on overseas profits have been brought to an end. Obama hopes this will mean an extra $210 billion for the government’s coffers. In a departure from his usual urbanity, he even stooped so low as to condemn a Cayman Islands law firm with which 18,857 companies are registered. This is gross ingratitude toward Wall Street, which has done so much for his economic adviser, Larry Summers, and which financed his campaign so generously. Mark my words, there is still more trouble to come from this Mr. Obama.
No, the fundamental issue here is the economy. We might have hoped that his provisional intention to create four million jobs in 10 years, announced during his first days in office, was not to be regarded as a serious commitment. But on the contrary, it’s all going ahead. Despite objections from some quarters, the Obama administration has just launched its support for the use of ethanol as a substitute for oil. Above all, the president is placing special emphasis on new technologies. Thirty billion dollars are devoted to such technologies in his rescue package, and 900,000 new jobs in the sector are to be created very quickly. Unlike during the Clinton era, this is not a question of innovation for innovation’s sake. Priority has been given to three areas: health, the electric grid and internet broadband. At this rate, Europe – which had expected to be the most competitive economy in 2010 – has cause to worry.
Worst of all, this president, not content with being “green”, is deploying a hostile policy against the business world. His handling of the crisis in the motor industry is revealing. Having sacked the boss of General Motors, he is now going to hand over the keys to both GM and Chrysler to the auto workers’ union, the United Auto Workers, which is poised to become the principal shareholder in the two companies. Some optimists have been explaining that this is the best way to get the workers to agree to restructuring, but the shareholders have lost almost everything. Thanks, Mr Obama!
Le Monde was not wrong in February, when it ran its headline that Obama was positioning himself clearly “on the left”. His fiscal policy confirms it. First of all there was the tax rise for high earners. We can skip over the fact that, thanks to Bernard Madoff’s friends, most of those dubbed “rich” by the press had hoped to evade the tax rise by means of a few, judicious tax haven investments. Their hopes proved in vain. Obama still has the tax havens in his sights, nonetheless. The facilities allowing multinationals to pay only 2.3 percent tax on overseas profits have been brought to an end. Obama hopes this will mean an extra $210 billion for the government’s coffers. In a departure from his usual urbanity, he even stooped so low as to condemn a Cayman Islands law firm with which 18,857 companies are registered. This is gross ingratitude toward Wall Street, which has done so much for his economic adviser, Larry Summers, and which financed his campaign so generously. Mark my words, there is still more trouble to come from this Mr. Obama.