White House report is good in context

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Bill Radke: Back home, the White House released its annual economic report this morning, and it doesn’t make for uplifting reading. It predicts credit is going to stay tight and unemployment will stay high. Reporter Brett Neely has more.

Brett Neely: The White House report predicts the economy will grow 2.5 percent this year, in line with what outside economists predict.

In a normal year, that figure would be considered anemic. But White House economic advisor Christina Romer said on CNBC this morning that the forecast needs to be kept in context with where the economy was in early 2009.

Christina Romer: Judged against where we were headed, the fact of where we are now, of course it’s not good enough, but I think it is a stunning tribute to just how powerful the actions of the Fed have been and the actions in the Recovery Act and the other things the Administration has done.

One piece of good news in the report is that the economy will soon start adding about 95,000 jobs a month. Problem is many economists believe you would need to add three times that rate to bring unemployment down from the current 9.7 percent.

In Washington, I’m Brett Neely for Marketplace.