In July 2008, in a memorandum for the Obama campaign team and later published in Challenge,  I wrote as follows:

If the above analysis is correct, the political capital of the new presidency risks being depleted, quite quickly, in a series of short-term stimulus efforts that will do little more than buoy the economy for a few months each. Since they will not lead to a revival of private credit, every one of those efforts will ultimately be seen as “too little, too late” and therefore as ending in failure.

The promotion of the renewable energy industry is central to the Recovery Act and the Obama administration's broader economic recovery program, but it is unlikely to create enough jobs or have a large enough domestic multiplier effect to contribute significantly to the economic recovery. It reflects an ambition to transform the economy into a green energy leader of the 21st century and tackle climate change. But these investments are a questionable short- or medium-term generator of growth and jobs.

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Speaking this past week at the Ex-Im Bank, President Obama laid out his strategy for doubling American exports within five years, a goal he announced in his State of the Union Address. Naming it the National Export Initiative, he described the strategy as “an ambitious effort to marshal the full resources of the United States government behind American businesses that sell their goods and services abroad.” The Initiative calls for the creation of an Export Promotion Cabinet, made up of the Secretaries of State, Treasury, Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor along with the United State