WaitingforObama

As the festive season rolls on in America there is a sense of waiting, and dare I say, hoping. The country, if not the entire world, is waiting impatiently for the inauguration of Barack Obama as President. Some here seem convinced he is the Messiah, and those of us of a more cynical bent are still hopeful that he might be more John F. Kennedy than Jimmy Carter with speech making abilities.

Whichever he is the world desperately needs hope and leadership as it is awash with problems. The perspective in the States is slightly different than it is in Europe but the underlying themes are identical. The economy stands out as the principal issue and last night I was dining out with a bunch of politically active Southern Californians in the city of Glendale. The consensus amongst all of them, Republicans, Democrats and the non-aligned was the same. The country has to get back in the business of making things that people want and need to buy. Two examples given were low emission and high mileage little cars and fuel-efficient power generation.

On the ground level there was clear evidence that local businesses are in deep trouble just as they are at home. It was agreed that the principal culprits are the banks that are still misusing funds, now provided by us all, and are not recycling that money back into the system. The results of this short termism are rapidly becoming catastrophic as businesses simply cannot arrange credit and are incapable of continuing with finance.

In property I encountered a lady who manages many “for rent” apartments and houses. As people have already invested their funds to purchase the properties she manages she is unable to vary the terms of those properties except for the virtually cosmetic provision of initial inducements. As people simply cannot qualify for regular mortgages to purchase homes here you could assume that they will be rushing to rent. But this is not the case, the business is virtually not moving as the unfortunate folk who can’t afford to stay in their homes as purchasers are moving back in with their families. This is a recession like no other in living memory.

You get some additional signs of this when you look around you on the streets of Los Angeles and Las Vegas and notice the hugely increasing numbers of people begging on the streets in near freezing temperatures. This dramatic increase in numbers is a new phenomenon; these people are dressed more like middle class professionals than they are tramps. They could be you and me.

I spoke with a retailer who has dropped his prices on clothing by 50% for this usually busy period for his store, and he had 3 customers in an entire day. He doesn’t know how long he can continue to stay in business if it continues like this.

The happiest person at the party was the lady who recently retired with a teacher’s pension. Many others were congratulating her for her remarkable good fortune and hoping that they can reach the same stage without further problems.

I have never met a group of Americans who are so pessimistic, and it is really quite worrying and depressing to do so, and this was without anyone raising little matters like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the continuing problems in the Middle East and the unresolved War on Terror. Let us all hope that next month, when Obama takes his Presidential oath in Washington that it is the first step in his starting to lead this country and the world to a better future, we certainly need it.