A Journal opinion article Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

A Journal opinion article - Essay Example Despite the promise to cut debts by half, Federal debts has gone up by 52% reaching $16.2 trillion a thing unheard of in the US. In the year 2007 US underwent the worst recession since the great depression that robbed that saw stocks hitting their bottom just before 2009. This changed after January 2009 when Dow Jones Average went up 70%, Standard & Poor 500 index went up 81 %, and NASDAQ complex index went up 119% (Jackson web). The levels of unemployment stood at 7.8% as they are as at September 2012. Although millions lost jobs immediately, Obama took oath the government has managed to pull the economy to the position of absorbing the same and providing extra jobs. Just before the recession, the level of unemployment had gone down to less that 5% only to rise in 2009 to as high as 10% (Jackson web). The poor state of the economy prevented the level from falling again and it took nearly two years to lower the level even by a small margin. However, the economy has slowly regained mo st of the lost jobs and predictions promise more jobs in the next coming months. The level of unemployed Americans is 12.1 million, which is the lowest since January 2009. A drop from 8.1% to 7.8% before the elections gave Obama a positive boot to winning the elections just a month away (Jackson web). Although some sectors like manufacturing has lost many jobs and some critics use it to bring the government down and to prove that no progress has taken place at all. Some even suggest that the government have skewed numbers to aid Obama re-election into government. The bureau of statistics has come out to confirm that really some jobs have been created and that the economy is actually moving forward. However, several other indicators suggest otherwise and confirm a slow growth of the economy. For instance, the US treasury, note went up by a small percentage depicting that investors are now willing to shift their investments from bonds to stocks. In fact, the prices of some stocks have gone up by a significant percentage with Dow Jones industrial average going up. Less income to families and increased poverty levels is another challenge blamed on Obama government. It is true that many families have suffered financially in the past few years and the poverty levels have gone up. In fact, household income and family income declined by a significant percentage or stagnated to some. Due to high levels of unemployment, the number of Americans living below the poverty line went up and was at 46.2 million in the year 2011. This is a rise from 46.3% in the year 2010 (Jackson web). In addition, food supplemental aid increased from increasing poverty levels. However, due to recession that occurred in the year 2007, household incomes were already declining or stagnant when Obama took office in 2009. The good news is that with the declining levels of unemployment, household income and family income will soon report an increase. Obama’s government has been blamed for ri sing fuel prices, which has doubled since he took over government. To be precise, the price was at $1.85 by end of January 2009 but at October 2012, this figure has gob has gone up to $3.8 (Jackson web). Although the prices of oil remain up, oil imports have gone down with a significant amount. In addition, dependence on oil has gone down with the country turning to other better sources like wind power and