The Secret of His Success (UAE)

No other American president in modern memory has faced a learning curve as steep as the one Barack Obama has encountered. Three years ago in April, 2006, the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded between 11,017 and 11,468.

It wasn’t until 18 months later in October, 2007 that the Dow Jones averages peaked at 14,269 and began the downward spiral with a 55 per cent drop to 6,443 on March 6, 2009. By the time he took office, America’s financial industry was in chaos, credit markets were frozen, housing values were plummeting and the economy was in its worst contraction since the Great Depression. Add to that Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and North Korea, and you get an extraordinary set of challenges.

And yet, by most measures, President Obama’s first 100 days have been successful. The economy remains weak, of course, but he has put forward a series of initiatives to stabilise the capital and housing markets, proposed longer-term programmes to create sustained growth, adjusted America’s military priorities in Afghanistan and Iraq, and begun a process of reaching out to the world and changing America’s image. These are only overtures, and naturally much will depend on how things turn out — in the economy, in Pakistan, in Iraq. But so far, any president would be envious of Obama’s accomplishments.

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