Obama to work, first economic conference to save the United States

The eyes of the whole world are now focused on Washington, because as the center of this storm, how the United States can go out of the trough as quickly as possible under Obama's leadership will, to some extent, directly determine the speed of the global economic recovery.

Start business on Wednesday

Obama is undoubtedly lucky, but the specific economic and social background in which he took office determines that he is destined to carry more public expectations than any US president in the past few decades.

Right now, the United States is in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and the "financial crisis" that has happened once in a century is still raging. Externally, the United States is fighting two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the escalating Palestinian-Israeli conflict has also made the United States Your position and role are even more important. How to coordinate the expectations of the international community, how to get the United States out of the two wars, and how to fulfill its responsibility to help the world get out of this round of financial and economic crisis as soon as possible will be in front of the first black president of the United States. The biggest test.

Obama's senior assistant revealed that the new president's work will begin on Wednesday, the first full day since he took office. On this day, Obama will first convene a new economic team to discuss economic stimulus and financial intervention measures to be implemented next. Obama has enlisted a bunch of heavyweight seniors to join his own think tanks, such as former Federal Reserve Bank of New York President Geithner and former Treasury Secretary Summers.

Another important issue for Obama in his first week in office is the finalization of the finance minister. Obama has nominated Geithner as the new Treasury secretary to replace Paulson, but the latter's appointment process has been forced to delay because of involvement in some tax scandals. Obama has to get Congress to nominate Geithner as soon as possible so that many of his economic stimulus and financial bailout programs can be run. It is reported that a Senate committee has scheduled a hearing on Geithner's nomination on Wednesday.

Prior to this, the Bush administration has applied to Congress for the remaining $ 350 billion of the $ 700 billion financial rescue fund, and the Senate has voted to release it pending the next vote in the House of Representatives. In addition, the House of Representatives just finalized the details of Obama's new $ 825 billion economic stimulus package last week, paving the way for the implementation of relevant measures as soon as possible.

Want to save the bank?

In recent days, with the successive losses of Citi and Bank of America, a new round of crisis that has gradually emerged in the US banking industry has once again attracted attention from all walks of life. For Obama, who took office on the 20th, this is also a tricky issue. The specific issue is how to use the remaining $ 350 billion financial rescue fund to save homeowners first? Or rescue the bank first?

Obama has previously publicly criticized the Bush administration for the improper use and management of the so-called tarp fund, and promised that he will make major adjustments to the use of the second-stage appropriation, focusing on helping families at risk of foreclosure and small businesses and small businesses with difficulties in borrowing personal.

Mr. Summers, the Obama-nominated director of the White House National Economic Council, said this week that the remainder of the $ 700 billion financial bailout fund would focus more on helping consumers, businesses and local governments than banks. He said the second batch of rescue funds will be used to help home buyers, issue car loans, consumer credit, and small business and municipal loans.

The tarp plan was first proposed by Paulson. The original intention was to acquire bad assets of the bank, but it has been easier to use since then. It has used 250 billion US dollars to directly invest in banks, and also directly injected capital into Citi and other companies. However, with the first batch of $ 350 billion being squandered, calls from all walks of life for the tarp fund to consider resuming its original use are growing.

Many senior officials, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, have recently stated that the United States should consider adopting more radical means to rescue the banking industry in order to achieve the goal of completely thawing bank credit. Specific suggestions include comprehensively guaranteeing banks' non-performing assets, establishing bad debt banks to acquire non-current securities assets of banks, and fully nationalizing banks.

Bloomberg columnist Cecil published an article this week stating that the first thing after Obama came to power was to buy a "brain dead" bank.

Can't Expect Too High

Despite the difficulties, many people are still very optimistic about Obama's appeal, calm personality and talent for speech, making him regarded as "Roosevelt second" by some people. The current severe economic crisis also makes people hope that Obama can reproduce the miracle of the economic recovery of the Roosevelt era 76 years ago.

Not only the United States, but the world ’s expectations of Obama are not so small, some people remind that such expectations are a bit too high. Dale, a senior researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies at the Washington Think Tank, said the world ’s expectations for the Obama administration and its foreign policy are too high, and simply changing the executive team will not make all problems easier.

Obama himself also seems to have deliberately cooled the high expectations of the people in order to leave himself a "back road". In a recent speech, Obama expressed concern about the bleak prospects of the economy, warned that the unemployment rate would rise to double digits, and warned Americans that the economic crisis "may be a rare event in our lifetime" and emphasized these issues No quick fix.

For now, some experts believe that Obama, who has captured the hearts of his charisma, must strike a balance between stimulating morale and avoiding too high expectations, which will help him to implement a series of economic stimulus policies. Express reporter Zhu Zhouliang

Let's see how Obama can save the US economy

On January 20, when Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, he was greeted not only by flowers and applause, but also by a severe financial crisis. How to solve economic difficulties has become an important task for the new owner of the White House.

Since December 2007, the U.S. economy has been in recession. Consumption has shrunk, unemployment has increased, the housing market bubble has burst, financial markets have been turbulent, Citibank, General Motors, and so on. These "big Mac" companies, which are signs of the US economy, are also Struggling for life and death.

In a series of economic challenges, the rising unemployment is a major problem at present. The United States unemployment rate reached 7.2% in December last year, the highest level since January 1992. Economists expect that the unemployment rate will reach 8% or higher in the coming months, given that the US economy is still unable to emerge from the recession in the short term.

In order to appease the public's panic and inspire market confidence, Obama has repeatedly emphasized that one of his major goals after taking office is to win more employment opportunities for the people.

The "magic wand" in the hands of Obama is an economic recovery plan known as the "Obama's New Deal"-an economic stimulus plan totaling $ 800 billion to $ 1 trillion, which will also be the largest economic stimulus ever in the United States. plan. According to the plan, large-scale infrastructure construction, development of new energy sources, and investment in states and high technology will create 3 to 4 million jobs in the United States; stimulate investment by increasing tax rebates or reductions. And consumption.

A major focus of the "New Deal" is new energy projects. According to the preliminary plan, the "New Deal" will promote the development and production of new energy through more than 20 billion US dollars in tax rebate subsidies, allocate 32 billion US dollars to update or build power systems related to new energy, and allocate 31 billion US dollars to promote energy efficiency in buildings Measures.

Developing new energy sources and reducing dependence on oil have always been at the core of Obama's energy policy. According to Obama, in the current US economic situation, taking the above actions can generate a brand-new energy industry and create millions of jobs for the United States, while enhancing US energy security.

In the face of a severe financial crisis, this "strong medicine" will naturally have "side effects". It will exacerbate the US fiscal deficit and risk the depreciation of the US dollar; at the same time, this is not likely to be a "quick-acting medicine", and any policy is lagging. Obama also emphasized that economic recovery cannot happen overnight, and the US economy may continue to deteriorate before it improves.

The first 100 days after taking office will be a critical period to observe Obama's decision-making ability. If he still cannot effectively curb the economic downturn, or if people still cannot see the hope of economic recovery, the outside world's confidence in the Obama administration may be lost. If Obama is indeed capable of turning the tide, he will pave the way for his successful completion of the presidency.

Compared to Bush, Obama has many advantages. At least until now, he has greater public support than Bush; more importantly, he is facing a Congress controlled by the Democratic Party, which is a favorable condition for him to implement the "New Deal". For example, Congress quickly passed the remaining $ 350 billion of the $ 700 billion financial rescue plan, and the House Democrats proposed a new economic stimulus plan totaling $ 825 billion, almost following his "New Deal" model.

When Obama became the new owner of the White House, he faced a declining American economy. It is widely hoped that he can make a difference in saving the US economy.

Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Hong