Light at the End of the Unemployment Line? (May 28th)

Light at the End of the Unemployment Line?
PoliticalAffairs.net

March 27th marked the 100th day since the passage of President Obama's economic recovery act. To observe the occasion, the administration released a report on the progress of the stimulus package and the economic recovery since.

The report provided anecdotal evidence of the impact the recovery act has had in different parts of the country. So far $112 billion from the recovery act have been obligated for various projects like infrastructure construction to job training, environmental clean-up, small business loans, expanded unemployment benefits, public education, science research grants, public safety, and green technology.

At the release of the report, Vice President Joe Biden said, "We’ve done a lot in 100 days. But we know there is still much to do... You know, as we do, that the road to full recovery will be long and not always smooth. But we also know that, working together, there is no doubt that we will reach the end of that road. When we do, America will be better and stronger than ever."

Rob Nabors, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, explained to reporters, "We have a long way to go, but today we have more hope for an economic turnaround than we did 101 days ago."

"We are starting to turn a corner," Nabors added.

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Sweden’s Fix for Banks: Nationalize Them

The New York Times
January 23, 2009
Sweden’s Fix for Banks: Nationalize Them

By CARTER DOUGHERTY

The Swedes have a simple message to the Americans: Bite the bullet and nationalize.

Officials in Washington are trying to figure out how to shore up American banks that once ruled the financial world but now seem to weaken by the day, despite receiving hundreds of billions of dollars in government aid.

With Sweden’s banks effectively bankrupt in the early 1990s, a center-right government pulled off a rapid recovery that led to taxpayers making money in the long run.

Former government officials in Sweden, many of whom come from the market-oriented end of the political spectrum, say the only way to solve the crisis in the United States is for the government to be prepared to temporarily take full ownership of the banks.

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