Biden's policies have boosted employment, helping people afford the basics, Obama said. The ex-president recently discussed the financial crisis too.
White House Photo
Many experts have panned the Biden administration's economic policies for stoking historic inflation, forcing the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates at a record clip, and paving the way for a painful recession. Yet the jobs created have been a boon to many Americans, former President Barack Obama has argued.
"A tight labor market means that there are a bunch of families right now who can pay for groceries even with inflation, that their kids are living in a pretty stable household, that on Christmas there's a present under the tree — and a lot of that has to do with policies that have helped to bolster the economy and encourage a tight labor market," Obama recently told Hasan Minhaj on the comedian's YouTube channel.
"Now that may be wonky, that may be not sexy, it's not as cool as talking about fascism's coming," Obama joked. But the jobs boom might convince some jaded Americans to vote, he noted.
President Biden echoed Obama's message during a speech in Chicago on Wednesday. He noted that unemployment has dropped from over 6% when he took office to below 4%, and has remained there for the longest period in half a century.
The Biden administration's spending helped push inflation to a 40-year high last year, spurring the Fed to hike interest rates from virtually zero last spring to north of 5% today. Higher rates can curb price growth by encouraging saving over spending and lifting borrowing costs, but they can also slow the economy, raising unemployment and the risk of recession.
Obama's point is that for now at least, so-called Bidenomics has boosted employment, helping more Americans to cover their food and housing costs and provide for their children.
Obama came to the defence of his own administration during a recent episode of "The Axe Files" podcast.
After Lehman Brothers collapsed and the housing bubble popped in 2008, Obama considered allowing the reckless banks who caused the disaster to fail, and their shareholders to lose their money, as an act of "Old Testament justice." However, he recognized the impact that punishing them would likely have on the wider economy.
"What you were going to end up seeing was the financial system continuing to lock up, and you were going to get into a depression in which the 99% - it was all going to land on their heads," the former president said.
Obama acknowledged it would have been politically and psychologically satisfying to punish the bad actors, but noted that was easier said than done.
"In some cases, by the way, we would have happily prosecuted some people," he said. "But it turned out that in a lot of these instances, people weren't breaking the law. It's just that the game itself was rigged."
"There weren't laws on the books that would allow for some perp walk for somebody who had helped caused this crisis," he added.
