Chameleon Clinton

Mr Clintons return to the White House has undoubtedly been facilitated by the good health of the US economy, just as George Bushs prospects were not by the opposite. But it is doubtful if Mr Clinton has done much to contribute to this happy state, except for not putting a spanner in the works for the Fed or the restructuring process in corporate America. Hopefully, as the dollar surges against the yen and the rising sun no longer poses a threat to the American psyche, the global economic leader will be able to espouse the cause of free trade more freely and help everybody else. Traditional Democrats, with their base among industrial workers, can sometimes pose a threat to free trade, but thankfully Mr Clinton is not much of a traditional liberal-Democrat. The demands for universal labour and environment standards continue to pose threats, but on balance the US can be expected to come out in favour of further freeing of world trade.

 

There is also the hope that, not having to worry about another re-election four years down the road, Mr Clinton can now seriously get down to a more statesmanlike role which benefits the rest of the world. He can begin by undoing the knot in which the US has tied the UN and reassure the Americans that Boutros Boutros Ghali is not the worst gnome to visit the earth after Saddam Hussein. As for the latter, it will be reassuring that there will be no more pre-election compulsions to lob a couple of missiles at the latters fiefdom, to the great detriment of all oil importing nations.