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2nd chance: Can Obama fix the economy?

Thursday, November 08, 2012 - 01:52

Nov. 08 - America is giving President Barack Obama a second chance at fixing the economy and spurring job creation, so what does he have to do his second time around the block? Conway G. Gittens reports.

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The election is over and now it's time to get back to work... literally. Focusing on America's crumbling infrastructure is one way to get Americans back on the payroll, says Obama advisor and host of Reuters Impact Players, Robert Wolf. SOUNDBITE: ROBERT WOLF, OBAMA ADVISOR/HOST OF REUTERS IMPACT PLAYERS (ENGLISH) SAYING: "Every dollar spent, it's a 1.6 multiplier. If you look at where we lost most jobs it was in the construction. If housing is starting to have a slow rebound, you could also have infrastructure take up a lot of the slack. For every billion dollars spent, it actually creates between 25,000 and 30,000 jobs." But what good is job creation if people don't have the right skills? Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs says helping Americans better adapt to the shifting jobs market should also be a priority. SOUNDBITE: JEFFREY SACHS, PROFESSOR, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY (ENGLISH) SAYING: "We have to help young people to get better skills, more marketable skills so that they can find jobs because those with the college degree find jobs much more easily than those with only a high school diploma for example. Jobs skills. Job matching. This is something that other countries do better than the United States." REPORTER STAND-UP: CONWAY G. GITTENS, REUTERS (ENGLISH) SAYING: Another thing Obama can do: improve on being Confidence-booster-in-Chief. SOUNDBITE: ROBERT WOLF, OBAMA ADVISOR/HOST OF REUTERS IMPACT PLAYERS (ENGLISH) SAYING: "So a big thing is the psyche and if there is a feeling like we are going to start growing this economy, manufacturing is coming back, housing is coming back, hopefully we can get our politics to be more bi-partisan in nature, then I think it bodes well for the next four years." To that end, economists say Obama's leadership in the resolution of the fiscal cliff is tantamount to a stronger recovery. If employers know where taxes and other regulations are headed - then they can better plan for an economy that's still growing, even if at a sluggish pace.