Romer: Obama's not to blame for female unemployment
Boston (CNN) - One of the president's former top economic advisers said those who blame President Barack Obama's policies for the decline in job creation among women in particular are being dishonest.
"That's someone trying to lie with numbers," Christina Romer said Wednesday.
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Romer resigns White House post
(CNN) - Christina Romer has resigned as head of President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers to return to her teaching post at the University of California, the White House announced Thursday night.
White House: Unemployment at 9% until 2012
Unemployment will likely stay at or above 9% through 2012, White House officials said Friday . (PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images)
New York (CNNMoney.com) - The White House said Friday it expects that unemployment will stay at or above 9% until 2012, but at the same time forecast that the economy will grow by at least 4% in 2011 and 2012.
It also revised its long-term deficit estimate under President Obama's proposed 2011 budget: The administration now believes the 10-year deficit will be $58 billion less than projected in February when the budget blueprint was first released.
Under the revised estimates, Uncle Sam will ring up $8.474 trillion in deficits between 2011 and 2020, down from the $8.532 trillion estimated in February.
In the near-term, the administration expects the 2010 deficit to come in at $1.47 trillion - slightly lower than originally forecast - while the 2011 and 2012 deficits will come in somewhat higher.
White House: Stimulus funded 3 million jobs
New York (CNNMoney.com) - Despite groans from Republicans about high unemployment, President Obama's administration continues to say the stimulus is creating jobs.
In its latest stimulus report released Wednesday, the White House's Council of Economic Advisers said the Recovery Act has already funded about 3 million jobs.
That's in line with earlier predictions from Christina Romer, chairwoman of the council, who has said since the beginning of the Recovery Act that the stimulus would save a total of 3.5 million jobs by the end of 2010. Different models estimate the number of jobs to be between 2.5 million and 3.6 million, meaning Romer's target may have already been reached.
Economists: All signs good for continued U.S. economic growth
Washington (CNN) - The slow but steady U.S. economic recovery appears set to continue, with underlying indicators signaling a growing strength, some of the nation's senior economists said Sunday.
"The trend has turned," said Lawrence Summers, director of the White House National Economic Council, on CNN's "State of the Union" program. "But to get back to the surface, we've got a long way to go."
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told ABC's "This Week" that the recovery so far has led to conditions for compounding growth. In particular, Greenspan cited an increasing demand for inventory that spurs production as a signal of a possible significant build-up in growth.
"I suspect it's month by month," Greenspan said of continued economic growth, adding that "a statistical aberration is possible."
He said he doubted another drop in growth to create what economists call "double-dip recession" after the downturn of 2008-2009, saying the odds were "very much against that now."
On NBC's "Meet the Press," the chair of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, Cristina Romer, said the recovery would have to be systemic rather than consumer-driven because, in the wake of the recession, "we're not going to be see people maxing out their credit cards again."
Romer predicted economic growth for the year of 3 percent, which she said would be enough to keep creating jobs but not enough to significantly reduce the unemployment rate.
All three spoke two days after the government announced 162,000 news jobs created in March but the unemployment rate remaining at 9.7 percent.
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Romer: Prospect of big banker bonuses 'offends me'
Washington (CNN) – One of President Obama’s top economic advisers took aim Sunday at the large bonuses Wall Street bankers are expected to receive soon.
“We will see in the next week or two, five-, six-digit, seven-digit, maybe even, some say, eight-digit bonuses for people in the banking industry,” CNN Chief National Correspondent John King said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. “Is there a message from the Obama White House to the banks as they prepare to make these big [bonus] announcements?”
“For Heaven’s sakes people,” Christina Romer, Chair of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, said in response, after pausing and appearing at a loss for words. “It does seem really ridiculous. We have had to take extraordinary actions to rescue the financial system. We always did it because that’s what had to be done for the American people. No one wanted to bail out the banks just for the banks’ sake. It’s because we know that credit is the lifeblood of a modern economy.”
“You would certainly think that the financial institutions that are now doing a little better would have some sense. This big bonus season - of course it offends the American people. It offends me,” Romer also told King.
Romer was circumspect when asked about the nation’s economy which continues to struggle more than a year after the financial crisis of late 2008 threatened another depression.
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Top economists say unemployment coming down, but slowly
Washington (CNN) - Unemployment will go down in the coming year, but that doesn't mean U.S. economic woes are over, leading economic figures said Sunday.
Appearing on the NBC program "Meet the Press," former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and Christina Romer, chairman of the White House Council on Economic Advisers, both made qualified predictions for economic growth and decreasing unemployment.
"I feel (it's) very likely it will be coming down," Romer said of the unemployment rate, but warned some "bumps" are likely in the coming year.
Greenspan noted upcoming boosts to employment, such as more than 700,000 people working in 2010 to conduct the federal census.
Unemployment "is going to be lower," Greenspan said, mostly due to people returning to the labor force.
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Obama adviser: 'It's gonna be a long, hard slog getting out of this'
WASHINGTON (CNN) – One of the president’s top economic advisers said Sunday that the nation’s recessionary economy has begun to turn around but there’s still a ways to go to get back to economic growth.
“We did get some positive news this week,” Romer said of reports that the gross domestic product contracted just 1.0 percent in the second quarter of this year.
“The slowdown is certainly slowing down,” Romer said, comparing the second quarter GDP figure to the 6.4 percent GDP contraction in the first quarter. “But we still have a ways to go before we hit bottom and certainly it’s gonna be a long, hard slog getting out of this.”
“We, like most private forecasters, think that real GDP growth will probably turn positive before the end of the year,” Romer told CNN National Political Correspondent Jessica Yellin, ”but that’s just the first step. You’ve got to start growing again before you start adding jobs. But the other thing is you’ve got to grow quickly to really bring the unemployment rate down.”
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'I'm right up there with the boys,' Romer says
WASHINGTON (CNN) – The only woman in President Obama’s inner circle of economic advisers said Sunday that she has no trouble holding her own with likes of Larry Summers and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
“I’m right up there with the boys,” Christina Romer, the Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.
Watch: Romer on 'the boys'
“The economics team has a lot of strong personalities. I’m actually one of them,” Romer told CNN National Political Correspondent Jessica Yellin.
“I do sometimes have to interrupt them,” Romer said of Summers and Geithner, “because they do both like to talk. But, absolutely, I feel my voice is heard.
“The president is great at this,” she added. “He is very careful to make sure that every voice is heard and he made it clear he wants to hear from all of us.”
Romer also said the economics team has “some very frank discussions.”
“But it’s actually great. There’s a big feeling of mutual respect. We argue. We think about things. And then we bring recommendations to the president and I’m pretty proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish.”
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