Obama and the economy: Is he good or just lucky?
A lot of signs point to a fairly steady economic recovery. The unemployment rate, while still high, is falling; consumer confidence is up; industrial output is nearly back to its pre-recession level; blue chip stocks have recouped their losses.
As the November election looms, President Obama will continue to point out his role in bringing America out of the biggest economic disaster since the Great Depression, but a key question remains: If the economy is truly in recovery, is the president good, or just lucky?
A Bloomberg Businessweek piece addressed this question and caught our attention. We were wondering: Is the United States actually in an economic recovery and what does this say about Obama's economic record?
Joshua Green, author of the piece and senior national correspondent for Businessweek, will join The Daily Circuit Tuesday. Noam Scheiber, senior editor of The New Republic, will also join the discussion.
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"I think Obama's first term will be remembered for one huge domestic policy accomplishment -- health care reform -- which will help the country for generations to come," he said. "But that accomplishment came at a big cost. The long-term cost was not seeking a bolder approach to Wall Street reform, one that would have dealt seriously with too-big-to-fail banks."
Video: Obama on economic recovery
Video: Noam Scheiber on Obama's original sin
KERRI'S TAKEAWAY
President Obama is a little bit of both: lucky and good. We had good callers on this in-depth segment that brought a lot of dimension to their analysis of the question.
