On the 22nd January Alex Ferguson wrote for The Weekly:
The City is falling. New York is falling. The world is falling.
Bankers everyone are running from their offices, with dosh in their pockets and fear in their minds about the next obstruction to financial growth (ie their bonuses): Barack Obama.
Obama this week decided that the world needed cleaning up, and has decided to tell banks that they aren't going to able to operate businesses where their traders trade their own book, or be allowed to own private equity funds.
The world gulped. Bank stocks fell nearly 10%. The hysteria started.
Insurers were ecstatic that financial regulation doesn't seem to affect them - although we still can't believe that he didn't put forward the edict that no insurer was allowed to have a 'prop' trading arm or give out bonuses if it had been bailed out by the US government.
"Never mind the bloody bonuses, now I can't even trade," moaned one trader, in between his game of Liar's Poker and glass of Krug.
Reinsurance Towers told this trader to calm down. After all, we reasoned, what has Obama actually done in his year-or-so of office?
He's done one thing: he's reduced his own popularity. People are beginning to use the word "emperor" and "new" and clothes" when they talk about Barack Obama.
Don't get us wrong - we like a person who's desperate to do something and change the course of history. We loved the fact that he signed a decree to close Guantanamo Bay (hasn't happened yet), fought for health reform (hasn't happened yet - and now a Republican has won the 'safe' seat of Massachussetts (glad we splet that one correctli) - is unlikely to be anywhere near as good for the American people as it once was) and yelled at his security people over the near-fiasco of the Detroit plane bombing (can't wait for those see-through screen, Barack!).
But really, the grade you can give him a "C-". Why? Because he's tried very hard, but done absolutely nothing. We love triers in the world. But we want a doer.
Let's hope he gets something done.
