to Free Trade? this is something that has been plaguing my mind. The recent developments taking place in the USA are sending strong signals that Protectionism is back and back in a very big way. The last time that was the case was during New Deal.

Now what do we make out of these measures? To Begin with, One must remember that USA is also a democracy and in any Democracy, Votes are paramount.Developed Country or Developing Country, politicians are always after Votes and Barrack Obama is no different.

A look at his past will clearly reveal that he has always been someone who has been inclined towards rising of barriers to help shield American Companies against competition from the Developing world.Swaminathan Aiyar of Economic Times wrote a wonderful article capturing this beautifully. So these moves do not come as a big surprise.

Obama with this move is sure to make American Voters happy. They will now feel that Obama is out there to protect American Jobs and American Companies. Well, It is a Politically correct decision.

Economically, though it does not augur very well for the Developing world and in the long Run for American companies too. Remember the License Permit Raj Days in India. All that did was to make India Inc complacent and it gave them the luxury to remain without spending money on research and improving their technical capabilities.

Compare that against the Liberalization Era, where Indian Inc has grown tremendously to acquire foreign firms, become super efficient and grow on par with the best in the world.

So, here is the problem for Obama. If he is going to allow liberalization, Stop subsidies and let Merit alone prevail, that might cause More American companies to shut shop and above all dissatisfy the American public or try to follow "Be American Buy American" policy, shutting out the developing world thereby creating a huge problem as most of the Developing countries run a surplus with America and if they start to pressurize for redemption, that will push the USD downwards and will result in the dethroning of America from the Numero Uno Slot, or tread a middle path by following protectionism in a camouflaged form and on looking at what is happening, it seems like he is treading the path of Camouflaged protectionism.