Fundamentals of economy are strong?
Talk about mixed signals:
The economy is fundamentally sound despite the temporary "mess" it's in, the White House said Sunday in the kind of upbeat assessment that Barack Obama had mocked as a presidential candidate.Amazing. Just a month ago, Barack Obama was telling us all that we may never recover from the current recession. A week ago, one his top economic aides said the economy was still fundamentally week. Then, poof, after three good days on Wall Street, they want to say it's all turning around. Earlier this month, Obama said he wasn't paying much attention to stocks, equating the stock market to a tracking poll.
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During the fall campaign, Obama relentlessly criticized his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, for declaring, "The fundamentals of our economy are strong." Obama's team painted the veteran senator as out of touch and failing to grasp the challenges facing the country.But on Sunday, that optimistic message came from economic adviser Christina Romer. When asked during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" if the fundamentals of the economy were sound, she replied: "Of course they are sound."
"The fundamentals are sound in the sense that the American workers are sound, we have a good capital stock, we have good technology," she said. "We know that - that temporarily we're in a mess, right? We've seen huge job loss, we've seen very large falls in GDP. So certainly in the short run we're in a - in a bad situation."
Just a week ago, White House Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag declared that "fundamentally, the economy is weak." Days later, Obama told reporters he was confident in the economy.
Once you start taking ownership of success, you also take ownership of failures. Congratulations, President Obama, you just bought yourself an economy.
Comments
He not only bought himself an economy he bought himself the problems that go with it. They are playing the smoke and mirrors game. Things do not change that quickly and they know this as they put out propaganda that things are going better just because of a few good days on the stock market. All it takes to make it fall is a small crisis here or a bad report there. Giving AIG $170billion of our taxpayers money and then AIG gives some of the top people $165 million in bonuses over this weekend. Did we feel something hit us in the back that was our change. I saw a cartoon showing two taxpayes looking at the big banking industry, mortgage companys, and of course AIG on life support being fed our money to sustain their companies. Government life support with some very strong strings attached. Take a good look at the future.
Posted by: The Doctor | March 15, 2009 10:06 PM
Excellent conclusion, somehow I think he'll use the "I inherited" line a time o two more.
Posted by: Jerry | March 16, 2009 08:45 PM
I'm listening to Meet the Press now. I think they missed it. McCain stated Fundamentals strong indicating ALL fundamentals strong. Obama said focus on the fundamentals that are strong meaning the couple or few of the fundamentals that are strong. Other fundamentals still need to be strengthened.
Posted by: goodjjdfkkf | March 17, 2009 12:09 PM
The comment wasn't from Obama, it was Christina Romer and you can read the transcript here:
Posted by: Jason | March 17, 2009 07:18 PM