The academics and politicians often refer to the current situation as being the worst since the "great depression." And yes, they expect to have learned a few things from that experience. They think that unemployment will continue to rise for at least another year. Now they say its is 7.2% (high for U.S.), but some argue that it is really over 12%, because they don't count all the people who have quit even trying to find a job. There has been alot of corruption in the U.S. banking system, and the American auto makers produce cars and trucks that few people are interested in buying anymore (too big and gas guzzling). An economist friend tells me that part of the problem will simply be for the public to regain confidence in the financial markets and such, and then things will improve. There has been little confidence because of the lax regulatory policies by the Bush administration. Their idea, which we call conservative here, is to let free markets and competition control the economy.

After 1929, President Franklin Roosevelt began what he call a public works program. Large sums of public money were provided to build roads, bridges, and other infrastructure. Essentially to provide jobs for people to do useful things. Over about 8-10 years the investment largely paid off. Then World War II began, and of course alot of jobs were available to build the war stuff. Obama also wants to invest to create join job creation. In his case, largely "green" jobs aimed at new energy sources (solar, wind, biofuels), infrastructure improvement, better land use and on and on. Seems like a good idea to me. The country will go into further debt, but in the long term it might pay off. The academics and politicians often refer to the current situation as being the worst since the "great depression." And yes, they expect to have learned a few things from that experience. They expect that unemployment will continue to rise for at least another year. Now they say its is 7.2% (high for U.S.), but some argue that it is really over 12%, because they don't count all the people who have quit even trying to find a job. There has been alot of corruption in the U.S. banking system, and the American auto makers produce cars that few people are interested in buying now (too big and gas guzzling).

At last we will have a smart president who has found other smart people in different areas to fill the government. What a change from Bush!