- From Q2 2009 to Q4 2016, economic growth, as measured by the change in real GDP, averaged 2.0 percent. This was slower than the 2.6 percent average from the first quarter of 1989 through the fourth quarter of 2008. During President Bush’s first term, real GDP increased by about 3%, but barely 0.5 percent during his second. GDP growth was close to 4% during the Clinton administration, somewhat quicker than the Reagan administration.
- Real GDP increased by $2.4 trillion (16.6%) from $14.4 trillion in Q1 2009 to $16.8 trillion in Q4 2016, a total increase of $2.4 trillion. Real GDP per capita increased by $4,593 (or 9.7%) from $46,930 in 2009 to $51,523 in 2016 (a new high).
- During his presidency, inflation (as assessed by the CPI-All Urban Consumers, All Items) plummeted to an all-time low, averaging 1.4 percent from Q2 2009 to Q4 2016, significantly below the 3.0 percent average from Q1 1989 to Q4 2008.
- Interest rates declined as well, and they stayed extremely low. From Q2 2009 to Q4 2016, the yield on a 10-year Treasury bond averaged 2.4 percent, substantially below the 5.8 percent average from Q1 1989 to Q4 2008.
- The national debt held by the public increased by $8.1 trillion or 128 percent from $6.3 trillion on January 31, 2009 to $14.4 trillion on December 31, 2016. When expressed as a percentage of GDP, it increased from 52.3 percent in 2009 to 76 percent in 2016. In contrast to Obama’s actions, the majority of the debt rise was inherited from the previous administration (e.g., tax cuts and wars) or was caused by the Great Recession (e.g., decreased revenue and greater automatic stabilizer expenditure).
- The national debt (public debt + intra-governmental debt) increased by $9.4 trillion, or 88 percent, from $10.6 trillion on January 31, 2009 to $20.0 trillion on December 31, 2016.
- Obama presided over the third-longest economic boom of the 33 expansions examined since 1857, as well as the longest continuous period of private sector employment creation since 1939.
What was the 2016 GDP growth rate?
In 2016, real GDP increased by 1.6 percent (from the 2015 annual level to the 2016 annual level), compared to 2.6 percent in 2015. (table 1).
What was Obama’s contribution to the country?
Barack Obama’s term as President of the United States began on January 20, 2009, with his first inauguration, and ended on January 20, 2017. Obama, an Illinois Democrat, was elected president after defeating Republican contender John McCain in the 2008 presidential election. He was re-elected four years later, defeating Republican nominee Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election. Obama was followed by Donald Trump, a Republican who won the presidential election in 2016. He was the first African-American president, as well as the first multiracial, non-white, and Hawaiian president.
A significant stimulus package, a partial extension of the Bush tax cuts, health-care reform legislation, a big financial-regulation reform law, and the termination of a major US military presence in Iraq were among Obama’s first-term actions. Obama also named Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, the latter of whom became the Supreme Court’s first Hispanic American. Until Republicans won a majority in the House of Representatives in the 2010 elections, Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. Following the election, Obama and congressional Republicans got into a long fight over government spending and the debt ceiling. The Obama administration’s anti-terrorism strategy downplayed Bush’s counterinsurgency strategy, relying more on host-government militaries and extending air strikes and special forces deployments. The military operation that culminated in Osama bin Laden’s murder on May 2, 2011, was orchestrated by the Obama administration.
Obama took moves to tackle climate change during his second term, signing a major international climate pact and an executive order limiting carbon emissions. Obama also oversaw the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and other laws signed into law during his first term, as well as the negotiation of a nuclear deal with Iran and normalization of relations with Cuba. During Obama’s second term, the number of American forces in Afghanistan decreased considerably, however American troops remained in Afghanistan throughout his presidency. Following the 2014 elections, Republicans took control of the Senate, and Obama continued to clash with them on government spending, immigration, judicial nominees, and other matters.
Who are the greatest presidents of all time?
Historians frequently list Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and George Washington as the three most highly regarded presidents. Recent presidents such as Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton are frequently ranked among the best in popular opinion polls, although presidential experts and historians do not agree. Because both William Henry Harrison (31 days) and James A. Garfield (200 days, incapacitated after 119 days) died soon after assuming office, they are sometimes overlooked in presidential rankings. Despite the fact that Zachary Taylor only served as president for 16 months, he is frequently included in the list. It’s unclear whether these three received low ratings because of their activities as presidents or because they were in power for such a short period of time that they didn’t accomplish much.
The “dichotomous or schizoid features” of presidents, according to political scientist Walter Dean Burnham, make it difficult to categorize them. “There are presidents who could be called both failures and great or near great (for example, Nixon),” historian Alan Brinkley said. “How can one evaluate such an unusual ruler, so smart and yet morally lacking?” historian and political scientist James MacGregor Burns wondered about Nixon. It’s also unclear if absolute rankings matter much, especially for presidents in the middle. The Times’ US editor, Gerard Baker, writes, “On a chart, the 42 American presidents fall into a well-known Bell-curve or normal distribution, with a few standouts, a few duds, and a lot of so-sos. In all honesty, I couldn’t claim that number 13 on the list is significantly better than number 30.”
What is the state of the economy in 2021?
Indeed, the year is starting with little signs of progress, as the late-year spread of omicron, along with the fading tailwind of fiscal stimulus, has experts across Wall Street lowering their GDP projections.
When you add in a Federal Reserve that has shifted from its most accommodative policy in history to hawkish inflation-fighters, the picture changes dramatically. The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow indicator currently shows a 0.1 percent increase in first-quarter GDP.
“The economy is slowing and downshifting,” said Joseph LaVorgna, Natixis’ head economist for the Americas and former chief economist for President Donald Trump’s National Economic Council. “It isn’t a recession now, but it will be if the Fed becomes overly aggressive.”
GDP climbed by 6.9% in the fourth quarter of 2021, capping a year in which the total value of all goods and services produced in the United States increased by 5.7 percent on an annualized basis. That followed a 3.4 percent drop in 2020, the steepest but shortest recession in US history, caused by a pandemic.
What was the 2017 GDP?
The US economy is growing at a rate of 2.3 percent. As can be seen in the ranking of GDP of the 196 nations that we publish, the United States is the world’s leading economy in terms of GDP, with a total of $19,479,600 million in 2017.
What is the highest US GDP ever?
From 1960 to 2020, GDP in the United States averaged 7680.13 USD Billion, with a top of 21433.22 USD Billion in 2019 and a low of 543.30 USD Billion in 1960.
What was the 2015 GDP growth rate?
The Bureau of Economic Analysis, the government department in charge of compiling GDP estimates, reported that the economy increased 2.9 percent in 2015, up from 2.6 percent previously predicted. That was the most significant increase since 2005.
What did Obama do after graduating from college?
Obama was born in the Hawaiian city of Honolulu. He worked as a community organizer in Chicago after graduating from Columbia University in 1983. He entered Harvard Law School in 1988 and served as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. He worked as a civil rights attorney and an academic after graduation, teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 until 2004. Returning to electoral politics, he served in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, when he ran for the United States Senate. With his March Senate primary victory, his well-received July Democratic National Convention keynote address, and his overwhelming November election to the Senate, Obama gained national notoriety in 2004. He was nominated for president by the Democratic Party in 2008, a year after launching his campaign and following a close primary race against Hillary Clinton. Obama was inaugurated alongside his running mate Joe Biden on January 20, 2009, after defeating Republican contender John McCain in the general election. He was selected the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize recipient nine months later, a choice that received both praise and condemnation.
During Obama’s first two years in office, he signed numerous major measures into law. The Affordable Care Act (ACA or “Obamacare”), which does not offer a public health insurance alternative, the DoddFrank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010 are the most important reforms. During the Great Recession, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, as well as the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act, functioned as economic stimulus. He signed the Budget Control and American Taxpayer Relief Acts after a long discussion over the national debt limit. In terms of foreign policy, he expanded US troop numbers in Afghanistan, reduced nuclear weapons through the New START Treaty between the US and Russia, and halted military engagement in the Iraq War. Anwar al-Awlaki, a US citizen and alleged al-Qaeda operative, was killed in a drone attack by Obama in 2011, sparking outrage. He ordered military intervention in Libya in order to carry out UN Security Council Resolution 1973, which helped to depose Muammar Gaddafi. He also oversaw the military operation that led to Osama bin Laden’s killing.
Obama was sworn in for a second term on January 20, 2013, after defeating Republican opponent Mitt Romney in re-election. During his term, he advocated for LGBT Americans’ inclusiveness. His administration filed filings urging the Supreme Court to declare same-sex marriage bans illegal (United States v. Windsor and Obergefell v. Hodges); after the Court ruled in Obergefell, same-sex marriage was legalized nationwide in 2015. In reaction to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, he fought for gun regulation, indicated support for a ban on assault weapons, and launched sweeping executive orders on global warming and immigration. In foreign policy, he ordered military interventions in Iraq and Syria in response to ISIL gains following the 2011 withdrawal from Iraq, promoted discussions that led to the 2015 Paris Agreement on global climate change, oversaw and eventually apologized for the deadly Kunduz hospital airstrike, drew down U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2016, initiated sanctions against Russia following the annexation of Crimea and again after interference in the 2016 U.S. elections, and drew down U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2017. Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan were approved as Supreme Court justices by Obama, while Merrick Garland was denied hearings and a vote by the Republican-controlled Senate. Obama resigned from the presidency on January 20, 2017, yet he still lives in Washington, D.C.
The United States’ international reputation, as well as the American economy, dramatically improved under Obama’s presidency. Obama’s presidency has received largely positive reviews, with historians, political scientists, and the general public consistently ranking him within the top tier of American presidents. Obama has stayed involved in Democratic politics since leaving office, including campaigning for candidates in the 2018 midterm elections, speaking at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, and supporting Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Obama has written three blockbuster novels outside of politics: Dreams from My Father (1995), The Audacity of Hope (2006), and A Promised Land (2008). (2020).
What was Obama’s motivation for receiving the Nobel Peace Prize?
President Barack Obama of the United States received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 for his “extraordinary efforts to improve international diplomacy and people-to-people cooperation.” Obama’s promotion of nuclear nonproliferation and a “new climate” in international relations fostered by Obama, particularly in reaching out to the Muslim world, were cited by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in announcing the award on October 9, 2009, citing Obama’s promotion of nuclear nonproliferation and a “new climate” in international relations fostered by Obama.
The Nobel Committee’s decision elicited conflicting reactions from pundits and editorial writers throughout the political spectrum in the United States, as well as the rest of the world.
On December 10, 2009, Obama accepted the prize in Oslo. “Perhaps the most profound issue surrounding my receipt of this prize is the fact that I am the Commander-in-Chief of the military of a nation in the midst of two wars,” he said in a 36-minute speech about the tensions between war and peace and the concept of a “just war,” saying, “perhaps the most profound issue surrounding my receipt of this prize is the fact that I am the Commander-in-Chief of the military of a nation in the midst
After Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jimmy Carter, Obama is the fourth President of the United States to receive the Nobel Peace Prize (Carter’s distinction came after he left office).