In the News

President Obama and his development legacy

John Norris discusses the legacy of the Obama administration and the challenges for the next president.

Seven years is a relatively brief stretch of time, but it is easy to forget that absolute tumult that greeted President Barack Obama as he stepped into the presidency in January 2009. The global economy was being shaken to its core. More American workers had lost jobs in 2008 than in any year since World War II. Some 800,000 more Americans lost their jobs in just Obama’s first month in office.

Major American carmakers teetered on the edge of collapse, government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac had already been taken over by the government, and investment company Lehman Brothers dissolved into bankruptcy.

The above excerpt was originally published in Devex. Click here to view the full article.

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Authors

John Norris

Senior Fellow; Executive Director, Sustainable Security and Peacebuilding Initiative