Obama reflects on failures, successes on economic records

Global Business

U.S. President Barack Obama aired his concerns about the gulf between rich and poor in his final news conference.

He entered the White House during the worst financial crash since the Great Depression. He leaves with the U.S. enjoying full employment.

But just how much credit does he deserve? CGTN’s Owen Fairclough evaluates President Obama’s record.

Lehman Brothers employees out of a job, a Wall Street titan in ruins as the worst recession in living memory decimated the U.S. economy just before Barack Obama became President.

Unemployment rocketed to 10 percent in his first year. But an $840 billion stimulus program stabilized the U.S. economy and helped win Obama a second term.

The central bank’s record low interest rates and stimulus program also helped, but added to a ballooning debt pile.

The economy is now at full employment – an unemployment rate of under 5 percent. Few other advanced economies can match that right now.

Despite pledging to protect working families, Obama admitted the wage gap between rich and poor got wider while he was president—the Occupy movement protesting banker bonuses summing up the mood.

Income inequality is blamed for fueling the populist and protectionist tide Donald Trump rode as Obama’s successor.

Trump has promised to abandon the free trade deals championed by Obama, leaving question marks over just how much of his economic legacy will remain.

But ultimately as he prepares to enter the White House, Trump is getting the ultimate housewarming gift: an economy in far better health than it was eight years ago.