Economy Still Fragile

The White House released on Thursday that the latest GDP (Gross Domestic Product) numbers are encouraging but acknowledged that faster growth is needed to replace the jobs that have been lost in the recent economic downturn and to reduce long-term unemployment.

There has been a 2.5 percent annual growth rate, which marks the ninth quarter of positive growth within the economy. This figure is nearly twice the growth of 1.3 achieved in the second quarter. This doesn’t mean however, that the economy isn’t still just as fragile as it was when the recession first hit, but the US is starting to inch forward. Sustained economic growth above 2.0 percent is highly unlikely but for now fears of staying locked in recession are temporarily on hold.

It’s getting to the point of almost necessary for Congress to pass the American Jobs Act without further delay. The economy is still fragile and the US can’t afford to do anything to undermine the economic recovery. The American Jobs Act is a set of non-controversial proposals designed to get Americans back to work. The bill once passed will not add to the national deficit and the half-trillion dollar bill will be fully paid for.

The American Jobs Act has been pushed and pushed with Congress in an effort to avoid a double dip recession, which has been projected if the debt ceiling continues to rise. On October 11^th, however, the bill lacked to receive the necessary 60 votes from Congress to proceed. Obama stated that he would then break the bill into smaller derivative bills, however, the first of those failed in a 50-50 vote for cloture on October 20^th.