President Barack Obama is under pressure to take faster action against recession and glooming economy.
The headlines in the first 72 hours of Obama’s term included up to 5,000 job cuts at Microsoft, a gloomy economic outlook from General Electric and the steepest Inauguration Day stock market drop on record.
Passing the stimulus package appears to be Obama’s first priority, but Wall Street may have other ideas. The Federal Reserve’s policy-setting committee will spend part of Tuesday and Wednesday hashing out how best to spur growth.
Obama’s economic team has tried to balance the need for immediate economic help with longer-term goals of improving infrastructure and creating jobs, not to mention eventually tackling a swelling budget deficit.
The result is a mix of tax cuts, aid to state governments and infrastructure spending. A Morgan Stanley economist, Richard Berner, said such measures “don’t get to the causes of this downturn – they mainly tackle its symptoms.”
