Will Obama pull it off?

Right now the unemployment rate in the United States is 10.2%. Will Obama be able to reduce unemployment before the 2010 Congressional elections?

 

If we are to believe Obama's own economic team, those numbers will go up in 2010.

 

Good question. I'm not sure. I've heard some pretty pessimistic predictions by some economists. They say that the mess the Bush admin left Obama with is even worse than most folks realize. That it could take many years to right this ship (with the right policies... if Republicans get back in charge, I don't think we'll ever get back on track.)

That being said... I like to be optimistic and I hope for single digit unemployment by November 2010.

 

So the follow up question is... what will the 2010 elections look like if unemployment goes where the Obama admin is predicting (or worse)?

 

I think it's too soon to expect any recovery in job losses. Especially in the US since this crisis has been yet another reason to outsource jobs, and there need to be a good reason to bring the jobs back home and finance is not a good reason as long as outsourced jobs are not taxed more so that it becomes cheaper to have people work in the US than abroad.