President Obama on Tuesday signed the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
Signing the bill, Obama said, "Today does not mark the end of our economic troubles, but it does mark the beginning of the end, the beginning of what we need to do to create jobs for Americans scrambling in the wake of layoffs; to provide relief for families worried they won’t be able to pay next month’s bills; and to set our economy on a firmer foundation."
The first step is to stem the recession in the near term. In the longer term it will be to put the economy on a path to sustained growth and greater efficiencies in energy production, health care and other areas.
The official benchmark estimates from the White House: 3.5 million jobs will be created or saved over the next two years, and over 90% of them will be in the private sector.
But measuring the numbers of jobs saved as a result of the economic recovery package promises to be an elusive task.
The ability to create or save jobs will depend in great part on business confidence. That’s why, in addition to employment measures, Rich Yamarone, director of economic research at Argus Research, will keep an eye on small business confidence measures such as those put out by the National Federation of Independent Business.
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