The U.S. economy has improved largely because President Obama has been trying hard to introduce manufacturing jobs back to the market. The newly added jobs contributed to the drop of unemployment rate to 8.3 percent and rising purchasing power. Another good sign is that the European Central Bank agreed to provide an additional $700 billion loans to U.S. banks, showing confidence in the U.S. economy. However, Bernanke expressed concerns about current “uneven and modest recovery”. He pointed out that although the unemployment rate dropped, many people are taking temporary jobs for economic reasons. The housing market remains distressed because small businesses find it hard to obtain loans. Bernanke also points out that the surging gasoline prices will lead to lower purchasing power (New York Times).
It is highly possible that the drop in unemployment serves the immediate purpose of election for President Obama. I think it has some problems by introducing as many manufacturing jobs back as possible. Vertically, introducing manufacturing jobs enlarges the secondary sector, but the 21st century is an age for the quaternary and the quandary sectors, that is, information technology and research and higher education. With an originally big tertiary sector – service sector, President Obama proposed to develop backward in terms of the chain of production and to use an enlarged second sector to drive economic growth, which I think is not sustainable.
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