Barack Obama’s roadblock on the road to recovery
21st September 2010
Even the Brits can see it.
Throughout this disaster, BP has found itself a political football; coming so soon after the banking crisis, it was easy to paint BP into the same corner as “wicked”, bonus-driven financiers, an organisation that put profit before safety and self interest before social and environmental responsibility.
Yet whatever the political merits of this populism, economically it’s proved a spectacular own goal. Had Obama stood on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange wielding a banner marked “investment not welcome here” he could scarcely have done a more effective job in undermining international confidence in the safety and legal protections of the US economy.
Most corporations with sizeable interests in the US are re-evaluating their attitude to political risk in the world’s wealthiest economy after seeing the legally questionable way in which BP has been treated.
Where, other than business, are the jobs of the future going to come from? Yet both in his agenda and much of his rhetoric, the president seems determined to make life as uncomfortable for wealth creators as he can. He has failed to provide the certainty and confidence that drives business investment. Company bosses struggle to cite a more anti-business president.