September 15th marked the 1 year anniversary of the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers which was a key point in the financial meltdown of 2008-09. Like an episode of Ripley's Believe it or Not, in the last year we've seen:
- Millions of jobs lost, doubling the unemployment rate to 10%
- Thanks to the TARP program, the Government bailed out/tookover many powerful financial (AIG) & auto firms (GM & Chrysler)
- Huge dip in stock market - gobbling up retirement accounts in no time
It was the start of what has been called the worst recession since the Great Depression.
Ouch!
President Obama wasted no time in asking congress to pass an almost $800 million recovery act. Since it became law in Feb, the government has doled out plenty of stimulus money. Here is a nifty chart showing where it has gone:
And if this chart doesn't do it for you, maybe you like to have some good clean You Tube fun!
Here is an oddly edited message from President Obama on his economic recovery plan (I guess they didn't want any network anchors to feel left out).
Here is a message from FDR talking about the progress of his recovery plan.
So you can see we've been down this road before. Hopefully this time it doesn't take WWIII to recover.
What are your thoughts on our economy and government's role in the recovery? If you were President, what would your recovery plan look like?
No comments:
Post a Comment