Obama predicts

Obama predicts return of US prosperity

US President Barack Obama inspires the American nation to "rebuild" and change the policies that ushered in the ongoing economic crisis.

Critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day," Obama said in his first address to Congress on Wednesday in a reference to the Bush era.

The president suggested that due to the troubles of the past, the arrival of the "day of reckoning" was not unexpected.

"The fact is, our economy did not fall into decline overnight. Nor did all of our problems begin when the housing market collapsed or the stock market sank," he said.

Obama explained that the current problems are the result of the previous administrations having failed to address issues like tapping into new energy sources, revolutionizing the health care system and the reforming plans for national education.

"And though all these challenges went unsolved, we still managed to spend more money and pile up more debt, both as individuals and through our government, than ever before," he continued.

A recent survey of business economists pictured a gloomy future for the United States, indicating that the current recession in the US has created the worst economic situation in more than three decades.

Forecasts indicate that the world's largest economy will shrink by 1.9 percent this year and a total of 2.8 percent in the current downturn, Bloomberg reported on Monday.

Another 3.2 million Americans will be cut from payrolls in 2009, pushing unemployment to 9 percent by the end of the year.

In the face of the daunting challenges that lie ahead, however, the US president offered immense hope and promised Americans that their ailing "economy will recover and the nation will rebuild".

Warning of the threat of an "open-ended recession", President Obama urged lawmakers to assist the White House in preventing the downturn from having a lasting effect on the country's economy.

MT/AA