Monday, November 8, 2010

Daily Show: President Obama Interview

President Obama explains that he understands voter frustrations with unemployment, but that 18 months in office hasn't been enough time for the 8 million jobs that were lost to catch up with the economic recovery that businesses are experiencing. Obama points out that he has saved the country from a second Great Depression, stabilized the economy, and overseen 9 months of consecutive private sector job growth (though not fast enough). The economy is recovering, it's just that Obama is suffering politically from the natural tendency for unemployment to be a lagging indicator of recovery.

5 comments:

Tanvi Devidayal said...

Since unemployment is a lagging economic indicator, the effects of the depression will affect unemployment for a long time after the economy has even recovered or is in the recovering stage. This is unfortunate for President Obama who has spent less than two years in office as people believe that his policies do not seem to be working. If the recent elections (in which the Republicans got higher votes) are based on this slow growth in jobs, people have obviously not looked at the long run and this might affect them later.

Megan Weaver said...

I agree with Tanvi, people cannot expect the economy to come out of a recession over night. Obama is not a miracle worker, nor are the Republicans. It will take time for policies aimed at halting this recession to take effect. In the mean time things such as unemployment will remain high.

Khoa Anh Nguyen said...

Obama's efforts in saving the economy are undeniable, and to some extent commendable. However, the most pressing concern now is unemployment and job creation, which won't go away anytime soon. So unfortunately for Obama, many people will keep being skeptical for a while.

Scott Hellberg said...

If he wants to help the unemployment problem, maybe some incentives for small businesses would help with those numbers. It not going to fix the problem since companies remain skeptical of progress within the economy, but it would help. If your worried about making the deficit larger as most people respond with too a tax cut recommendation, a cut down in the obamacare would be a valid option. It appears that the republicans already realize this, and are working on this since regaining the house

Neil said...

It is going to take some time for the economy to recover and citizens need to understand this. Yeah, unemployment is a huge issue and I think Obama has done well with getting us out of this recession. The unemployment will lower it will just take a while, but Obama knows what he is doing, people just need to give him awhile.