Wanted: financial statesman

Barack Obama can thank the economy for winning him the election. But the US president-elect may soon want to curse it. If the economic news had been as good in November 2008 as it was 18 months earlier, Obama could well have spent Tuesday night thanking his supporters for their valiant but vain effort. There’s nothing like a mortgage mess, a falling stock market and a looming recession to turn voters against the incumbent party and towards an articulate merchant of hope. Now, though, Obama has ...