NEW YORK (Reuters) – Former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton dug into an issue that has vexed economists, political strategists and the White House on Thursday – if the U.S.’s fiscal numbers are so good, why are Americans so unhappy about the economy?
Speaking at a high-dollar fundraiser for President Joe Biden at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, Obama and Clinton urged thousands there to stick with the Democratic president for a second term, while trying to pin down the reasons economic concerns are high despite job growth, healthy spending and better-than-expected GDP increases.
There are “structural problems” that frustrate people, Obama said, including the suppression of unions. That’s something Biden has specifically battled against, he said.
“If you’re working hard, and your paycheck is getting stretched, beyond the breaking point, and you’re worried about rent, and you’re concerned about the price of gas, it’s understandable,” Obama said.
The thing Biden and the people who support him need to communicate is: “Who do you think is actually going to look out for you?” Obama said. He made clear he did not think former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, would meet that test.
Trump and Republicans have blamed Biden for high prices that hurt American pocketbooks in grocery stores, the housing market and other sectors of the economy. Biden has pointed to company profit-taking, lack of competition and argued that inflation is coming down but there is still more work to do.
Clinton, who was president from 1993 until 2001, seemed to compare the current situation to the run-up to the 2016 election that his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, lost to Trump.
The 2008 financial crisis marred and limited what Obama could accomplish, Clinton said. Biden, at the time Obama’s vice president, did a “heck of a good job” running the 2009 Recovery Act then, Clinton said, as they worked to fill a $3 trillion hole in the economy. But at the end of Obama’s term, people couldn’t fully feel the economic progress yet. They did later.
“President Trump, let’s be honest, had a pretty good couple of years ‘cause he stole them from Barack Obama,” Clinton said about the economy Trump inherited from his predecessor.
“I listened to him tell us how terrible the American economy was all during 2016 and then by January 2017, after the inauguration, it had become wonderful, miraculously, overnight.”
The country should not make the mistake of 2016 again, Clinton said.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Writing by Heather Timmons; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government likely failed to keep its deficit below its promised $40 billion cap in the last fiscal year.
However the PBO also projects in its latest economic and fiscal outlook today that weak economic growth this year will begin to rebound in 2025.
The budget watchdog estimates in its report that the federal government posted a $46.8 billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pledged a year ago to keep the deficit capped at $40 billion and in her spring budget said the deficit for 2023-24 stayed in line with that promise.
The final tally of the last year’s deficit will be confirmed when the government publishes its annual public accounts report this fall.
The PBO says economic growth will remain tepid this year but will rebound in 2025 as the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts stimulate spending and business investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the level of food insecurity increased in 2022 as inflation hit peak levels.
In a report using data from the Canadian community health survey, the agency says 15.6 per cent of households experienced some level of food insecurity in 2022 after being relatively stable from 2017 to 2021.
The reading was up from 9.6 per cent in 2017 and 11.6 per cent in 2018.
Statistics Canada says the prevalence of household food insecurity was slightly lower and stable during the pandemic years as it fell to 8.5 per cent in the fall of 2020 and 9.1 per cent in 2021.
In addition to an increase in the prevalence of food insecurity in 2022, the agency says there was an increase in the severity as more households reported moderate or severe food insecurity.
It also noted an increase in the number of Canadians living in moderately or severely food insecure households was also seen in the Canadian income survey data collected in the first half of 2023.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales in August fell to their lowest level since January 2022 as sales in the primary metal and petroleum and coal product subsectors fell.
The agency says manufacturing sales fell 1.3 per cent to $69.4 billion in August, after rising 1.1 per cent in July.
The drop came as sales in the primary metal subsector dropped 6.4 per cent to $5.3 billion in August, on lower prices and lower volumes.
Sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector fell 3.7 per cent to $7.8 billion in August on lower prices.
Meanwhile, sales of aerospace products and parts rose 7.3 per cent to $2.7 billion in August and wood product sales increased 3.8 per cent to $3.1 billion.
Overall manufacturing sales in constant dollars fell 0.8 per cent in August.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
