Obama's Economic Record

Darrick Hamilton
President of the National Economic Association

“I’d say it was a missed opportunity. He certainly faced a catastrophe when he came into office, but nothing fundamentally changed the trajectory towards inequality. I think we had an opportunity to come up with a different structure, so that we could build more inclusive economies with really good jobs for the lot of all Americans. We still have a scenario where the unemployment rate for black Americans is double that of white Americans. If we characterize an economy as being in a catastrophe with unemployment rates greater than 8 percent, well then, the black unemployment rate is still above 8 percent. So frankly, black Americans are still in a Great Depression or a Great Recession, at the very least.”