Obama's Quagmire II: The Economy
In July, President Obama signed into law a landmark financial regulatory reform bill, one of the greatest overhauls of the financial system since the Great Depression. The new law is meant to curb the sort of excessive over-leveraging and risk-taking by Wall Street banks that led to the Great Recession. But it could do little to win over a majority of voters, many of whom were displeased with the billions of dollars spent to bail out Wall Street. Main Street was still hurting, even after the Recession was declared over in September. Unemployment hovered doggedly near 10%, while foreclosures exceeded 2009 projections. Not surprisingly, Lawrence Summers, Obama's lead economic advisor and a man perceived to be connected to the high finance establishment (he was Secretary of the Treasury in the banker-friendly Clinton administration) announced he would step down from his post by year's end.