Happy New Year ECONtrepreneurs! How are Americans faring economically in 2010 and what can they realistically expect over the next twelve months? This blog applaudes President Obama's call for all Americans having the education and means to make informed choices for their lives during his speech last night.
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"How long should we wait? How long should America put its future on hold?"
"Make sure consumers and families have the information they need to make financial decisions."
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From this we know the President wholly supports the mission of The Delasol Group. In today's blog we highlight 5 areas from Obama's Executive Economic Summary for your learning pleasure.
- Jobs. Last May (see 5/18/09 post, "Economic Indicators") we wrote about the National Employment Situation, a key piece of information about the health of a country's economy. Last night, President Obama stated that "1 in 10 are out of work;" a 10% unemployment rate, as of December 2009 (This is current as of January 8, 2010). When we posted that blog entry last Spring, the jobless rate was 8.5% and 8.9% in March and April, respectively. The unemployment rate has worsened over the last 10 months, but you don't need Delasol to tell you that. In many households people are looking for first or second, or even third jobs to make ends meet. Obama says that employment is our number one concern and last night proposed a new Jobs Bill to add 1.5 million jobs by the end of this year.
- Works in Progress. On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to combat the chaos in the economic markets. The Act focused heavily on help for small businesses, building American infrastructure , developing clean energy industry and practices, loosening credit and building national confidence. In the State of the Union address last night, President Obama refered to these areas several times as high priority. The ECONtrepreneur blog will continue to report on how these developments affect you.
- What we got. The President said that in that last year, people had more disposable income (True), COBRA health insurance became 65% cheaper (True), and his Administration pioneered 21 different tax cuts (Possibly; we're still researching this one). With the benefit of hindsight, do you think this was a good sign of greater economic growth to come?
- What we can hope for. Hope was a major theme of the Obama campaign. Last night he said the American economy will move towards full employment, long-term growth, suspending discretionary spending, universal healthcare, and improving the U.S. Trade Gap. These are additional topics we will explore on this blog in months to come.
- What groups are definitely getting benefits? Students (loan forgiveness), retirees (stable markets and personal retirement accounts), the unemployed (new Jobs Bill), small business employers (tax credits and loose credit channels), homeowners (flexibility to move to a more affordable mortgage), women (equal pay for equal work), and military (veteran investment and support for families). The only group not benefitting - if that's possible - are the rich, who will not be seeing any tax breaks in the forseeable future.
That still leaves to debate how all of this progress will be paid for.
This year the ECONtrepreneur blog will closely follow progress in President Obama's economic agenda. Can't wait? Follow the Administration's progress at http://www.recovery.gov/.
Cheers!
