On one level, this video from Breitbart and Naked Emperor News doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know. The American economy isn’t recovering, and won’t any time soon, either. Barack Obama gives this sober assessment on “global rebalancing,” but perhaps doesn’t quite realize that he’s reversing himself on what kind of growth we had prior to his election:
Part of this global rebalancing is that they’re going to have to make some decisions as well about how they are approaching their domestic markets. And, you know, part of the bargain that we’re trying to strike within the G-20 framework is to say, “Look, we’ve got to take on our responsibilities in terms of improving our savings rate. You, on the other hand, have to recognize that a purely export-driven strategy of economic growth is not going to work, in that American consumers are just not going to be in the same position, and the American government is not going to be in the same position, that it’s been in over the last several years.
Remember when Obama used to sneer at the years of economic growth under the Bush administration? Well, apparently we’re not going to get back to even those levels, which Obama dismissed during his presidential campaign. And he’s entirely correct, as long as he continues to pursue the economic policies he’s used for the last fifteen months. That’s not a surprise to anyone who’s paid attention to this administration, except that Obama has finally gotten around to admitting it.
This is similar to Jimmy Carter’s “malaise” speech, except that Obama was smart enough not to deliver this one from the Oval Office.
