Earlier this week, I said that an Obama administration would have to bring in a massive fiscal stimulus to try and kick start the US economy. But of course, that's only one item on the to do list for someone who comes into office at a time when the US economy is in the grip of its most severe recession since Roosevelt, when the US is entangled in two wars going nowhere, and when it is confronting the rise of China, the threat from Islamist terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, along with the threat of climate change.

How is going to spend the $700 billion bailout package and how the hell will it be financed when it inflates national debt and nationalizes a substantial element of the US economy? Will he raise or lower taxes? Will he expand banking regulation to other investment instruments? What will he do about oil dependency and debt consolidation?

That's why Obama's to-do list, published in the New York Times makes important reading.

Apart from the stimulus package, he will have to stop more home foreclosures, changing the bankruptcy laws to allow judges to reset mortgages. Expect more protectionism but addressing the apartheid-style health care system in the US, and energy reform, will have to go on the back burner while the economy is in meltdown. Expect to see the automakers and tech industry clamoring for favors.

MarketWatch provides insights into how an Obama presidency will affect US taxpayers. We might well see him removing the tax on unemployment benefits and allowing people to make withdrawals from retirement plans. And energy companies might be on his hit list although the collapse in the price of oil might make that a moot point.