Posted on 04/09/2009 12:57:24 PM PDT by LottieDah
WASHINGTON (AP) - The economy's steep plunge appears to be ending, a top presidential adviser said Thursday, but he refused to predict how high the unemployment rate will rise before a sustainable recovery begins.
Lawrence Summers, director of President Barack Obama's National Economic Council, said there have been some encouraging signs the dive in economic activity that began late last year was drawing to a close.
"There has been a substantial anecdotal flow over the last six to eight weeks of things that felt a little bit better," Summers told the Economic Club of Washington. "The sense of a ball falling off a table, which is what the economy has felt like since the middle of last fall ... we can be reasonably confident that that is going to end within the next few months and we will no longer have that sense of a free-fall."
But Summers refused to predict how strong the rebound will be or when it will take hold.
The economy, as measured by gross domestic product, has to be growing at a rate of around 2.5 percent just to keep the unemployment rate constant. A GDP growth rate of 1 percent, while in positive territory, means the jobless rate would still be rising, Summers said.
The unemployment rate surged to a 25-year high of 8.5 percent in March, the government reported last week. That followed a fourth quarter when the GDP plunged at an annual rate of 6.3 percent, the biggest drop since 1982.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
I’m so relieved there is anecdotal evidence things are starting to ‘feel’ better.
Not in free fall? Have they turned on the main downward engines so we are accelerating faster than gravity?
Wow!
That’s a relief!
Yes.
So suddenly the scaremongering abysmal electional rethoric changed to more normal. One problem we’re still stuck with OBomba.
They’re in power with good salaries, so it feels OK to them.
Really??? So that notice we got from Bank of America last night that said our interest rate is now 25.74% APR even though we have NEVER been late and have a near 800 credit score ought to change, right?
Oh yeah, and our credit limit has been decreased to $250 above our $1100 balance (which was a balance transfer at a deal rate that has apparently been changed to “4.00 APR until we send you a letter saying otherwise”.)
This whack Nut just broke the Bullshit Meter!....
Could you imagine the homeless stories that would be on 24/7 on the MSM if there was a Republican President?
Republican President= everything is his fault.
Democrat President= “I feel your pain”
Mission Accomplished?
Summers has his finger in so many parts of the Washington and stimulus pie that I find it amazing that he has any time left to make any statements.
NObama’s administration is proving to be full of crooks and graft.
It goes without saying that NObama and company are nothing but crooks. The “free fall” was ALL ORCHESTRATED to him elected.
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