The state of our economy will be an important subject in next week’s State of the Union address by President Barack Obama. A recent set of speeches and announcements by the president and other senior administration officials mark out important new economic initiatives likely to underpin the president’s speech before Congress. These new initiatives build on the two threads that have run through the president’s economic policy since he first took office and began to bridge the abyss of the grim economy he inherited to get to the economy our nation desires.
The first thread of the administration’s economic policy has been an intense concentration on the immediate devastation wrought by the Great Recession: massive job loss, widespread home foreclosures and “underwater” mortgages, crushed industries, and vanished credit. While addressing that havoc was the front-and-center job as the president came into office, there was also a widespread recognition that the crash tumbled an economy already standing on a weakened and weakening foundation. Strengthening that foundation has been the second thread of the administration’s policy.
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