The One Unites the World!

... in concern over his own policies just a week into his presidency.

A week and a half in power and the Obama administration has managed to alienate a goodly portion of our trading partners. When the Telegraph headline reads “U.S.-EU Trade War Looms…”, you know that you have seriously stepped on some toes.

The genesis of all of this is the “buy American” provision in the fiscal stimulus bill. Nobody seemed to pick up on this provision as the bill sailed through the House, but it certainly didn’t fly under the radar for long. The Europeans have noticed and they are hopping mad.

The stimulus bill will cause the US to strip the rest of the world of investment money to pay for our spending spree that will buy only American goods. That's not going to go over very well. Here's some more anger directed at Obama from the Aussies.

Fears that the world downturn will spark a trade war have been stoked by the inclusion of measures to protect the US steel industry in Barack Obama's $US819 billion ($1.25trillion) package to stimulate the US economy.

The package, which Mr Obama hopes will jump-start the recession-hit US economy, contains about $US90 billion worth of infrastructure projects, with about $US64 billion subject to mandatory US steel requirements.

You have to give Obama credit. He is managing to unite the world.