NOW the paralysis of the US election is out of the way, we can hope for two things.

First, that the Australian dollar drops to a sustainable level.

Second, that President Obama has the guts to cut subsidies to his farmers.

Forget the carbon tax, mining tax or anything else Canberra can dream up - the biggest hurdle to our economic prosperity is the strength of the Australian dollar against the US greenback.

It's high because the US and Europe are economic basket cases and investors want to park their money somewhere safe - Australia.

Which seems a bit weird when you see the sneaky manoeuvres Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan is pulling to maintain his charade of a surplus.

My favourites are his tactic of pinching money from dormant bank and superannuation accounts and calling it the Government's, and his belief that getting companies to pay the same tax but in more frequent instalments is going to paper over the cracks in his economic masterplan.

Those two impressive economic strategies allow Mr Swan to travel the world lecturing to other countries on how smart and secure we are.

Now that Mr Obama's been returned to the Oval Office hopefully he can break the budget impasse with Congress and set the US on a clear growth path that sees money flow back into the country and takes pressure off our dollar.

Only then will we see our manufacturing and farm sectors start to fire.

And with that will come new jobs and job security - things that are thin on the ground in Wayne Swan's economic utopia.

If the dollar was around US80c it's a fair chance car parts manufacturer Autodom wouldn't have gone into receivership.

Local car manufacturing is in freefall.

Latest figures show just 14 per cent of all cars bought in Australia in the past year were locally made.

The No.1 reason? The high dollar.

The second thing I hope we see resolved is America's unhealthy addiction to farm subsidies, although I don't hold out much hope.

These subsidies are payments to US farmers for them to produce food no one actually wants.

So the surplus food is then sent cheaply on to the world market, driving down prices for farmers in countries that do not provide subsidies. Countries such as Australia.

Of course, subsidies are there solely so each side of US politics can say they support farmers - and shore up support in the states that were crucial to yesterday's results.

THE US is not Robinson Crusoe when it comes to subsidies.

Europe is arguably worse.

But one of these two giants needs to show leadership and pull the plug, so the other can hopefully see the error of their ways and follow.

And since Europe has fewer leadership skills than a kindergarten sandpit, our only hope lays with Obama doing something.

Our Government appears to wear the high Australian dollar as a badge of honour. It isn't.

It is a disease in our economic heart.

We have a unique relationship with America.

We are one of the few countries that could invite 2500 US marines to be stationed here and not have protests in the street.

And we have just been invited to sit at the grown-ups' table at the United Nations. We are a player.

So instead of Wayne Swan prancing around the globe telling everyone what a great job he is doing, he should be leading the charge for real economic reform in areas such as subsidies.

But I suppose that would require long-term thinking and strategy.

Not something that would fit into our own elastic election cycle.

Oh well, with the dollar so high, at least Mr Swan's overseas trips must be cheaper nowadays.