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In case you hadn’t noticed it yet, President Obama has been very busy doing his best as of late giving big business the front row in his policy making decisions. Business is making more profits than ever, so he has to give them even more help in order for them to amass even more cash. A South Korean journalist has noticed how much Obama has been bending over for the business community. Anything to get re-elected, I guess.
Hankyung, South Korea
Obama’s Business-Friendly
TransformationBy Hankyung Editorial
Translated By Jiyoung Han
23 January 2011Edited by Michelle Harris
South Korea - Hankyung - Original Article (Korean)
U.S. President Barack Obama’s latest string of business-friendly acts is garnering a lot of attention. Since taking office, Obama has been known to fiercely criticize Wall Street and emphasize the need to strengthen regulations. However, the president now seems to be pushing for the relaxation of regulations and other measures characteristic of a more business-friendly environment.
In a Wall Street Journal editorial printed on Jan. 18, President Obama announced that the federal government would undertake a "review that will help bring order to regulations that have become a patchwork of overlapping rules." The president has also proceeded to draw prominent members of the private sector into the ranks of his administration, most notably naming Midwest Chairman of JPMorgan Chase William Daley as his White House Chief of Staff and CEO of General Electric Jeffrey Immelt as the Chairman of his outside panel of economic advisers. Obama’s business-friendly actions do not stop here. The president is even set to deliver a speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, an institution with which he has previously had fraught relations.
The reason for President Obama’s transformation comes from his very acute realization that, for the sake of economic recovery and job creation, he cannot neglect to lend the private sector a helping hand. This is evident in the following passage of his Wall Street Journal piece: "Sometimes, those rules have gotten out of balance, placing unreasonable burdens on business — burdens that have stifled innovation and have had a chilling effect on growth and jobs."
President Obama’s actions hold many implications. In contrast with the increasingly enterprise-supportive America, Korea is tightening the reins on the building pressures at home. The Korea Fair Trade Commission alone is interfering with extensive business studies in areas like oil refining, sugar manufacturing, and home shopping, subsequently eliminating basic things like production cost studies. Key big businesses are facing the pressures of rising subcontract prices in all directions.
Although price stabilization is an urgent issue, artificially regulating prices and further increasing subcontract prices will distort the market order and weaken the vitality of business. For the sake of economic vitality and job creation, businesses must be provided an environment in which they are free to do as they wish. Governments must bear in mind how important it is not to burden businesses with constant interference. As such, today’s meeting between President Lee and the 30 group leaders must be a forum in which the difficulties of the business community are heard and solutions are sought together. It cannot become an occasion to strengthen government regulations.
