President Obama has at times hesitated to tout the economy’s strength too much given high unemployment, but he’s sounding increasingly optimistic on the campaign trail. In his first post-debate speech on Wednesday in Iowa, he tied together a slew of positive news in the stock market, jobs market, and housing to make the case that the economy was heading towards a breakthrough.
OBAMA: “Today four years after the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes we’re moving forward again. After losing 800,000 jobs a month when I took office, our businesses have now added more than 5 million new jobs over the last 2.5 years. Unemployment has fallen from a peak of 10 percent to 7.8 percent. The stock market has nearly doubled, which means your 401ks have started to recover. Foreclosures are at their lowest point in five years, home values are back on the rise. Manufacturing is coming back to America, our assembly lines are starting to hum again. Look we’ve got a lot more work to do, but we’ve got to build on that progress.”
