Barack Obama's biggest mistake so far was reappointing right wing Republican Ben Bernanke fed chairman.
Ben Bernanke presided over a horrible economic crash and did very little to stop it. He failed to recognize the burst of the housing bubble in late 2006. He failed to help save the lifeblood of the US financial system, Lehman Brothers, from collapse.
And for those of you who say Bernanke could have done nothing to save Lehman you are wrong. The fed has access to a printing press and this could have been easily used to save this company from collapse.
As President, you never want to have a fed chair of the opposite party. Richard Nixon learned this in 1969 when he made sure to appoint conservative Arthur Burns chairman and told him plainly to him "no recession or you are out".
Bill Clinton failed to learn this in 1995 when he reappointed Alan Greenspan after he told Clinton to cut spending drastically or he would jack up interest rates. Of course, Greenspan then did just that in 1999 and 2000, weakening growth in late 2000 just enough to cost Gore a big enough edge in the 2000 election for Bush to take.
In 2003, Greenspan was ordered by Dick Cheney to keep rates low to boost the economy for the 2004 election.
If the economy picks up and grows at 3% plus in 2011, look for Bernanke to needlessly jack up interest rates in late 2011 and through 2012 to "keep a lid on inflation", weakening the recovery for 2012 the way Greenspan did in 1999 and 2000.
Obama would have been better off appointing an ally like Paul Krugman or Robert Reich fed chair.