Economy - Robert Maguire on Diigo

18 Dec 09

Yet in one sense, Obama achieved more in the first 11
months of his presidency than his predecessor managed to in eight years. My
research clearly shows that he has begun to restore America's good name, an intangible
asset with highly tangible (read: lucrative) consequences. As head of state,
Obama has boosted the value of "Brand America" by just over $2
trillion, up from $9.7 trillion in 2008 to $11.8 trillion this year. That means
U.S. goods, services, people, and even the country's landscape are about 20
percent more enticing to the global market than they were in 2008.
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- Indeed, hardly any country's image has
  altered more than 1 or 2 percent since the NBI was launched. Perceptions about
  a given place remained more or less constant even as it was hit by political
  and economic upheaval, terrorist attacks, and natural disasters. Nor did the
  countless, ruinously expensive publicity campaigns optimistically designed to "brand"
  countries push up any ratings for the better.
- Following the publication in 2006 of cartoons
  lampooning the Prophet Muhammad, Denmark's image collapsed in Muslim countries
  in the survey. In Egypt, for example, Denmark had typically been ranked around 15th
  in most categories, with a high ranking of seventh for its governance.
- The
  second exception occurred this year and was even more dramatic. The United States,
  which had languished around seventh place in my index since 2005, shot up to
  first place, and not just in the perceptions of one or two countries. For a
  sample representing some 60 percent of the world's population and 77 percent of
  its economy, America is suddenly the most admired country on Earth.
- Closer analysis of the data shows that much of the boost
  comes from improved international opinion of the American people themselves.
  After the re-election of George W. Bush to a second term, I began to record
  falling scores not just for U.S. foreign policy but also for U.S. people,
  culture, products, and even -- by a delightfully illogical extension -- the U.S.
  landscape. Now, the world appears to have
  absolved Americans of any perceived sin, having elected the "right"
  president. Even the country's rolling hills and city skylines, it seems, are
  fully restored to their former grandeur in the eyes of the world.
- Redemption of the brand means more than just the warm
  and fuzzy feeling one gets when thinking about the United States. By
  combining the NBI data with a range of economic and industrial statistics, it
  is possible to hazard a brand valuation for a country, much as corporations
  value their brands. Working with Brand Finance, a consultancy that specializes
  in valuing the intangible assets of corporations, we estimate that the value of
  "Brand America" has jumped from $9.7 trillion in 2008 to $11.8
  trillion today. Even more remarkably, that increase comes even as the global
  recession has seen U.S. GDP growth decline 2.3 percentage points over the last
  year. That number is value that Obama has added
  to the U.S. economy simply by taking office and making the right speeches.

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