I was watching an interesting programme last night with an interview with a former economic advisor to Obama. He was called to give Obama an economic briefing before he was appointed President in January 2008. He told the incoming President that the country had a trillion dollars of debt, that unemployment was high and would inevitably continue rising for the next few years, that the US was losing out to India and China in world markets, that the US motor industry was on the verge of collapse and this would precipitate other industrial failure and corporate bankruptcy, and so on and so forth.
The advisor concluded by saying that he told Obama: "This is probably the most negative briefing given to an incoming President since that of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 when he was briefed about the Great Depression, and possibly even the worst since that of Abraham Lincoln's before he became President in 1860 and was told why civil war was inevitable".
Obama shrugged and said: "It is not even the worst briefing I have had this week!".
Anyone fancy the job?
