Barack Obama says US economic crisis is a recession

Austin News.Net
Sunday 13th July, 2008

Barack Obama has claimed the US is in recession.

He said there should be no doubt the country needs economic stimulation and means to fix the housing market.

He also said the country needs a long-term energy policy to reduce reliance on foreign oil imports.

Speaking to the traveling press corps, he delivered his assessment of the health of the US economy by saying: "I have little doubt that we've moved into recession at this point."

Mr Obama said he had been closely monitoring the financial health of mortgage providers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and whether the two mortgage providers would need a government bailout.

He said: "There are a lot of different definitions of what a bailout would look like. There are issues related to the short-term liquidity versus issues related to whether the underlying assets of the two corporations are really unsound."

He went on to say: "I think we need to watch carefully and see how it plays out before we make a decision about which steps need to be taken."

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