By Elias Tezapsidis

After a very long rally and a painful election-which caused many a headache for several Macalester students-change happened. As we all struggle to recover from our election addiction, trying to gaze away from CNN monitors, or Fox News for an additional dose of laughter, we recognize that the economy was undoubtedly a major factor that determined the race.Barack Obama is facing what is feared to be the largest financial crisis since the Great Depression, considering how the personal savings rates are currently the lowest since the Great Depression. Join me in the first part of my journey to explore the economic plan of the newly crowned president.

Obama considers the main problem to be that wages remain flat while the costs of necessary goods are constantly increasing. To reenergize the economy, Obama suggests enacting a windfall profits tax to find $1,000 emergency rebate, as a means to help American families pay rising energy bills. This will be a result of the government’s effort to provide tax relief to the middle class. Afterwards, Obama considers it necessary to supply $50 billion to evade the loss of additional jobs. This relief plan will be divided in two funds, the State Growth Fund, focusing on health, education and housing, and the Jobs and Growth Fund, which will focus on preventing the loss of jobs.

Then comes the taxing, everyone’s favorite moment of the year, which will hopefully be less painful for the working families due to tax cuts, such as the “Making Work Pay” cut created to reduce the income taxes, which are also divided into numerous categories, including one designated for seniors and one for the middle class, with an emphasis on making the process simpler and less time consuming.

Obama says he is a strong proponent of fair trade and willing to “fight” for it, by creating a trade policy that will open up foreign markets, while simultaneously creating and buttressing American jobs. The new president is even planning to put pressure on the WTO to end unfair government subsidies to foreign exporters on U.S. exports. Tax breaks will no longer be provided to companies that are moving their operations overseas, making sure that employment opportunities stay within American borders.

Moving on to what would attract a great number of Macalester students, Obama and Biden will invest in finding new innovators, along with creating five million new green jobs. This initiative will use the Michigan 21st Century Jobs Fund to identify the manufacturing positions that meet those standards. Obama is planning to invest $150 billion over the next 10 years for a clean energy economy, to support new green jobs and start using new biofuels.

In the upcoming _$ and Know, expect to find specific details on Barack’s plan on how he will protect homeownership and take on mortgage fraud. Until then, stick to the spending advice that will reinforce this economy: Bring (more) change-it is much needed.