Remember when the Obama Administration kicked-off "Recovery Summer?" If not, here's a brief reminder of the announcement the White House made on June 17, 2010: "WASHINGTON, DC – The Administration today kicks off “Recovery Summer,” a six-week-long focus on the surge in Recovery Act infrastructure projects that will be underway across the country in the coming months – and the jobs they’ll create well into the fall and through the end of the year. The Recovery Act has already funded tens of thousands of projects and put about 2.5 million Americans to work, but summer 2010 is actually poised to be the most active Recovery Act season yet, with tens of thousands of projects underway across the country that will help to create jobs for American workers and economic growth for businesses, large and small."
Over at Politics Daily, Alex Wagner wrote, “Vice President Joe Biden noted, ‘We've gone from hemorrhaging over 700,000 jobs a month the first several months . . . to adding several hundred thousand jobs a month in the last several months.’ He cited 2.3 to 2.8 million jobs saved or created by last year's stimulus bill, and projected that the U.S. was on track to create or save 3.5 million jobs by the end of 2010, announcing, ‘The fact is, the recovery act is working.’ The vice president went on to assert that the stimulus funding would create a positive ripple effect in the economy as a whole. Biden deflected criticism…asserting, ‘This recession was so much deeper, so much more profound than most people thought it [would be]. . . . We never thought that $787 billion was going to fill that hole. The purpose of it was to keep people from falling into the abyss . . . and begin to build a ladder to climb out of that hole.’ The vice president was seemingly at ease with the public's perceived skepticism over the success of the recovery act."
What we all know is that "Recovery Summer" never happened. Not only did things not pick up for the economy but they actually worsened.
And while every day seems to bring another "downer" story about the economy, a few news items (today) continue to underscore the fact that any recovery is a long, long way off. For example:
--“Jobless Claims Rise by 462,000”
--"September home foreclosures top 100,000 for first time"--“U.S. Dollar Is Dealt Another Blow”
--“Federal Reserve policy makers may want Americans to expect inflation to accelerate in the future so they spend more of their money now. Central bankers, seeking ways to boost flagging growth after lowering interest rates almost to zero and buying $1.7 trillion of securities, are weighing strategies for raising inflation expectations as well as expanding the balance sheet by purchasing Treasuries, according to minutes of the Fed’s Sept. 21 meeting released [Tuesday].”
--"Gold settled up to end above $1,370 an ounce on Wednesday, boosted by worries over dollar depreciation after the Federal Reserve signaled it will start buying government debt again to stimulate the economy."
The numbers don't lie, do they Mr. Vice President (and Mr. President)?
Mission accomplished?
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