With the selling of Mr. Obama's economic agenda now reported in full gear, it is an opportune moment to take another look at what he has told us he would do and, more importantly, what he hasn't told us about the economic cost of his energy plans.

The answer to the former question is straight forward. In his address to Congress, he pledged to double the production of renewable energy in the next three years, lay down thousands of miles of new transmission lines and introduce a "market-based cap on carbon pollution" to promote clean energy, fight global warming and "put Americans to work making homes and buildings more efficient."

Perhaps the best place to start seeking  answers as to how costly and realistic this agenda is likely to turn out is to look at the record of the three countries Mr. Obama specifically mentioned as  leading the United States in the renewable energy revolution: China,  Japan and Germany.

That record shows that such a revolution is a fantasy and that the green energy bubble has burst.

[To The Point is honored to have legendary investor Robert Agostinelli tell us his investment strategy in what he calls "Obambi Land."]

With the zealot flame of blind activism taking advantage of the dislocation in the banking and real estate markets, we are faced with near unprecedented conflagration in the global markets that we all rely on to manage our wealth.

Absent this opportunist attempt to "melt" down the free market system  and impose a social democrat's illiberal  and centralized dream on all Americans, my advice would be more measured. However this is not the reality with which we are confronted.  

Thus, here are my thoughts on investing in Obambi Land for my friends at To The Point.

America's enemies smell blood and it's type "O."

All new administrations stumble a bit as they seek their footing. But President Obama's foreign-policy botches have set new records for instant incompetence.

Contrary to left-wing myths, I wasn't a fan of the Bush administration. (I called for Donald Rumsfeld to get the boot in mid-2001.) But fair's fair. Despite his many faults, Bush sought to do good. Obama just wants to look good.

Vice President Dick Cheney was arrogant. Vice President Joe Biden is arrogant and stupid. Take your pick.

Don't worry about the new administration's ideology. Worry about its terrifying naïveté.  And ask:  At what point does naïveté become cowardice?

2009 may be a year of "interesting times" for China's communist rulers, for it is the:

90^th anniversary of the student-led revolt against imperial rule (the model for the Tienanmen Square student protest).
60^th anniversary of the establishment of Communist seizure of power.
50^th anniversaries of the Tibetan Revolt against Chinese occupation and the Dalai Lama's flight to India.
20^th anniversary of the Tienanmen Square massacre of students protesting for democracy.
10^th anniversary of suppression of the Falun Gong nonviolent spiritual movement.

What might happen?  Let's start with Tibet.

I have just returned from Afghanistan, and here is what I have concluded.

America has put its emphasis on establishing a central government based in Kabul as the dominant authority in Afghanistan, something no one - foreign or Afghan - has been able to do for centuries.

Rather than lack of "boots on the ground," victory is being turned into defeat by the insistence on centralized power. That takes the form of a grandiose plan to train and equip a 135,000-man National Army. "It won't work," I sadly told a U.S. general who briefed me in Afghanistan over the recess. "This plan will fail."

The general could not fathom how his plan, based on centralizing power in Kabul, was totally unworkable. I predicted all the militias and ethnic and provincial power brokers left out of the general's plan soon would be hired on by the drug cartels and Taliban fanatics. The situation, I cautioned, would worsen, not improve.

Here's how we can win instead.

Economic hope produced the American Revolution. Economic hopelessness delivered the French Revolution. Demagogues, not democrats, will hallmark the worsening economic crisis.

The potential for political turmoil is vast. Among the populated continents, only Australia has a chance of avoiding serious violence. We in the West stand at the brink of a terrible global struggle. Our response has been to fight among ourselves.

The order that diplomats adore is crumbling.

The European Union faces its first existential crisis. The EU worked well in the good times, when dissenting voices could be bought off, but worsening hard times threaten to knock it apart.

Half of Europe is broke (but still putting on the dog), while the other half tries to shun its spendthrift neighbors. Not long ago, the Europeans smugly lectured the US on our financial incompetence. Now it looks like their mistakes were worse.

Greed is universal. But it's especially dangerous when masked by self-righteousness. European financial managers and investors were at least as greedy as our worst Wall Street wizards. They just fell for different -- and even bigger, even worse -- scams.