US economy going thru' a spell of recession
From Fazle Rashid | Friday, 13 June 2008
NEW YORK, June 12: No one in the United States tries to conceal the fact that the economy is going through a spell of recession. The Fed officials and Treasury department say the current problems stem from the record spike in the price of oil. The economic activities have become softer, weaker, slower and sluggish, the experts said.
Inflation has remained the principal cause of concern. Americans are pinched by rising cost of energy and food.
Barack Hussain Obama who created history by being the first African-American to clinch Democratic Party nomination for the November race to the White House faced early setbacks. Obama's first priority, if he gets into the Oval office, will be to resurrect the weakening economy.
He has gathered a team drawing mostly from the Clinton team who helped the US revitalise the economy. The labour Union leaders criticised Obama's choice of picking Robert Rubin at the head of an economic team saying Rubin focused too much on Corporate America and not enough on workers. The selection of Jason Furman, a Harvard trained economist also drew flak. The Democratic party has often struggle to strike a balance between the Corporate America and the Unions.
The choice many feared indicated Obama's leaning towards the corporate side. Labour wants restrictions that would preserve jobs. The Obama economic team wants free trade that might cost jobs but that problem would be sought to be addressed by broader safety net channelling more income support and job training to the losers.
Obama, regardless of which should get the priority, called for a balanced budget. He called for creation of millions of jobs by rebuilding schools, roads, bridges and other critical infrastructures. Obama also suffered huge embarrassment as James Johnson whom he selected to head the team to search his running mate resigned amid news of financial scandal. His resignation came after days of intense probing and pungent attack from John McCain and the Republican party that Obama man received on favourable terms business deals from Countrywide Financial Corporation, the mortgage company that was a key player in the subprime lending crisis. Much of America's present economic woes is directly linked to the lending crisis.
Johnson said he was leaving the campaign not because he had done something wrong but to save Obama further grief. Republican party promptly seized on the question, saying people have reasons to suspect the judgement of the man who wants to be the US president. Obama camp hit back hard saying, 'we don't need any lectures from a campaign that waited 15 months to purge lobbyists from their staff and they did after such a long wait because they have a perception problem.'
Inflation has remained the principal cause of concern. Americans are pinched by rising cost of energy and food.
Barack Hussain Obama who created history by being the first African-American to clinch Democratic Party nomination for the November race to the White House faced early setbacks. Obama's first priority, if he gets into the Oval office, will be to resurrect the weakening economy.
He has gathered a team drawing mostly from the Clinton team who helped the US revitalise the economy. The labour Union leaders criticised Obama's choice of picking Robert Rubin at the head of an economic team saying Rubin focused too much on Corporate America and not enough on workers. The selection of Jason Furman, a Harvard trained economist also drew flak. The Democratic party has often struggle to strike a balance between the Corporate America and the Unions.
The choice many feared indicated Obama's leaning towards the corporate side. Labour wants restrictions that would preserve jobs. The Obama economic team wants free trade that might cost jobs but that problem would be sought to be addressed by broader safety net channelling more income support and job training to the losers.
Obama, regardless of which should get the priority, called for a balanced budget. He called for creation of millions of jobs by rebuilding schools, roads, bridges and other critical infrastructures. Obama also suffered huge embarrassment as James Johnson whom he selected to head the team to search his running mate resigned amid news of financial scandal. His resignation came after days of intense probing and pungent attack from John McCain and the Republican party that Obama man received on favourable terms business deals from Countrywide Financial Corporation, the mortgage company that was a key player in the subprime lending crisis. Much of America's present economic woes is directly linked to the lending crisis.
Johnson said he was leaving the campaign not because he had done something wrong but to save Obama further grief. Republican party promptly seized on the question, saying people have reasons to suspect the judgement of the man who wants to be the US president. Obama camp hit back hard saying, 'we don't need any lectures from a campaign that waited 15 months to purge lobbyists from their staff and they did after such a long wait because they have a perception problem.'