Can they?

While all the hooha is going on about Obama's Inauguration, I'm keeping myself optimistic without being overly excited. I do acknowledge that Obama is a very intelligent man and an excellent public speaker able to rouse the masses, but one has to bear in mind that so far all he has done is talk and he's promised many things. It has yet to be seen if he can and will deliver all the changes that he said will bring the American economy back up.

Although many would not like to admit it, it is a fact that most of the world's economy depends on the US. Many countries still peg or use the US Dollar to measure the strength of their own currency and a lot of international trade still depends on America. Wall Street and the Dow Jones affects pretty much every stock exchange around the world. America's foreign policies also affect global markets as in the case of the highly unpopular wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It's global influence is easily attributed to the sheer size of the US economy and the US market. Trading in billions of dollars doesn't allow you to merely sit back and enjoy the show. Decisions made in the US market have repercussions all over. And as a consumer market, the size of the American population makes it an extremely attractive hunting ground for exporters from other nations.

I do not expect things to change overnight. It's an extremely naive notion that the world will change with the swearing in of a new American president. But this first year will be a critical year for the Obama team. American voters are a jittery bunch. If they do not see progress and jobs being created, sooner or later, Obama's inspirational messages of "Change" will start to fall on deaf ears.

It will take not only a man to change America's situation but the entire country to work together to bring themselves up and dust themselves off. And what I'm afraid of is that Americans will sit back and wait for this man to get the job done and solve their problems for them. What American needs now is not a miracle man. They need a man to bring them together to get the job done as a collective.

I do believe that they've done the right thing in electing him. But I don't believe that the efforts of one man alone can fix the problems that they're facing now.