News
Are You Better Off Now Than You Were 100 Days Ago?
In the first two months of Barack Obama’s presidency, the economy shrank 6.1 percent, according to a government report out today.
The drop was greater than the 4.7 percent estimated by Briefing.com but less than the 6.3 percent fall in the fourth quarter of last year.
In that same period, unemployment has also hit record levels, with the national rate now at 9 percent according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and above 10 percent in 109 cities, according to the government report.
But there have also been some bright spots: personal spending grew 2.2 percent, the first time since about this time last year. And economists are saying that the rapid freefall is slowing, at worst, and even plateauing, at best.
It’s unfair, perhaps even irrelevant, to ask whether you’re better off today than you were 100 days ago, to borrow from Ronald Reagan. The sources of the current economic woes are entirely unrelated to the Obama presidency, and all this administration can do is work on fixing them.
But it’s been an intense 100 days for the Obama team and worth reflecting on whether what they’ve done has trickled down (sorry, again Reagan) to the general population.
At Recessionwire, some of the measures we look at are intangibles, like the psychic reward of finding a new passion and putting it into action. But we’re also keeping an eye on the very real developments and intentions yet to be played out. To note just a few:
• The $15 billion shot in the arm to small businesses announced last month by Obama as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
• A marked increase in new members to entrepreneur networking sites like Collective-E as individuals start businesses
• The “lemonade makers” who are finding opportunity in this pile of economic lemons
• Strong public confidence (63 percent in the first quarter) in the president –seen as an indicator of how people feel about the potential of their own livelihoods and well-being
By those measures, perhaps, there has been at least a plateauing of despair, if not a slight uptick in outlook.
However, the tales of people losing their homes and their jobs continue. Are we all better off today? Most of us, not. But he still has at least 1,300 or so more days to go.
Also, watch this video from Gallup on how Americans have rated Obama’s first 100 days in office:
Tags: economy, Food, Home and Style, obama, personal finance, The Unemployed Life, The Working World Discussion
3 comments for “Are You Better Off Now Than You Were 100 Days Ago?”
Post a comment
Special Sections
I can say yes and no. I am still working at the horrible job I have. The stock market has been up for the past 7 weeks. That is a yes. Housing market is slowly reaching the bottom. People are starting to buy because of the $8,000 for first time people buying a house. Loan modification started in March.
This is asking the wrong question – it’s not whether we’re better off today than we were 100 days ago, but whether or not we would be better off had the other guy been elected. The forces that set hundreds of thousand layoffs and mass economic upheaval into motion predated Obama, so what is relevant is whether taking all those forces as a given, the policies McCain would have enacted would have put us in a better position than we are in now.
Personally, I find it hard to believe that would be the case, but it’s a difficult scenario to evaluate. Either way, just thinking back to what our lives were like 100 days ago isn’t the most useful exercise.
Better off? No. More stressed out and panic-ridden? Yes. But 100 days isn’t long enough to measure Mr.Obama’s success rate with in improving the economy. We should check back in after 1 year’s time to see if we truly feel “better off” or not.