At said conference, the president-elect declined to confirm that he would raise top tax rates soon. Is he wondering if John McCain, his Republican opponent, was right, and this is no time to be raising anybody's taxes? Mr Obama also said that his promised tax cuts for “95 per cent of working families” should be seen as part of a new fiscal stimulus. Previously, he had not mentioned this as a reason for cutting taxes. On the contrary, he had emphasised that his plan was roughly revenue neutral, implying that any stimulus would be second order.

A question too complicated for campaign speeches, and which neither side even wanted to think about, now needs an answer. How can the next administration reconcile its longer-term goals for the economy with the imperatives of the economic crisis? Getting this right will not be easy, but is the key to success or failure in Mr Obama's presidency.

One danger lies in failing to think clearly about short term and long term. In the short term, a further big fiscal stimulus is needed. In the long term, the budget deficit will have to be cut not merely from where it will be after this new boost has been delivered, but from where it stands already. If these goals get blurred together, as they are likely to, the country will get the worst of both worlds: the short-term stimulus will be too small and the long-term consolidation will be too slow.