Economic Principals reviews the early evidence on what, if anything, we can say about Obamanomics.

The best line (even if it doesn’t really fit in to the article):

It may be time to dust off the adage, attributed to one of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s political aides. When asked about the economic advisers to the campaign, he pointed to his suit coat and said, before replying, “Do you see these buttons on my sleeve? They don’t do a damn thing, but fashion says I’ve got to have them, so I do.”

The next best line is attributed to health economist Victor Fuchs

Fuchs wrote that a general, systemic failure was common to all the policies that plague the provision of such services. It stemmed from “our unwillingness and inability to discuss and resolve value issues that form the foundation of any society.” He continued,

At the root of most of our major choices about social problems are choices about values. What kind of people are we? What kind of life to we want to lead? What is our vision of the good society? How much weight do we want to give to individual freedom? How much to equality? How much to security? How much to material progress? If we emphasize only individual responsibility, we come close to recreating “the jungle,” with all the freedom and all the insecurity and inequality that prevails in the jungle. On the other hand, if we ignore individual responsibility and rely entirely on social responsibility, the best we can hope for is the security of a well-run “zoo.”

Here, if you are curious, are the Economists for Obama.