Posted on November 25, 2008

Many of you were probably dancing in the streets on election night. I was – even though I identify myself as an independent. That the country will finally enjoy a leader who actually cares about ideas, who speaks grammatical English, who believes in science more than ideology, who doesn't see ecological or women's rights as liberal conspiracies, who exudes discipline, confidence, and charisma, who sincerely cares about the have-nots in society, and who won’t always resort to war as the answer to every national security problem is a huge relief.

But beware. Or, more precisely, be wary. Two weeks before the election, a Sunday talk show featured a debate between representatives of each campaign: Senator Evan Bayh (D-Indiana) representing Barack Obama versus Senator John Kyl (R-Arizona) representing John McCain. When the debate turned to which candidate would improve the nation's economic competitiveness, the two senators agreed that the goal was to attract more global corporations and spent the rest of their time quibbling over the best means of doing so. The role of small business was relegated to Joe the Plumber.

Obama's Big Thinking
President-elect Obama has surrounded himself with the visionary captains of global capitalism – those who believe that "kinder, gentler" free trade and free finance, qualified with corporate responsibility, will save our fast-sinking economy. Obama's chief economic advisor during the campaign, Jason Furman, is best known for a paper arguing that Wal-Mart, because it provides cheap goods for all, is one of the most progressive corporations in America. Robert Reich made his career in a series of arguments in early issues of The American Prospect suggesting (against Laura Tyson, another Obama advisor) that ownership of business generally – let alone local ownership – no longer mattered. And as John McCain fairly observed, candidate Obama has surrounded himself with experts who made awful calls over the past decade about relaxing standards for low-income housing loans and deregulating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, all of which contributed to the current financial mess.

What's most worrisome is that no one on the Obama A-Team understands that the key to revitalizing the economy and to fixing the financial crisis is nurturing and expanding locally owned business. But at the B- and C-Team levels there is enormous sympathy for the views of us locavores. So what should they be doing? — read more