Obama's (tentative) legacy

Washington

IT IS far too early to render final judgement on the Obama presidency. All the chatter about his "legacy" overlooks two obvious realities. The significance of Barack Obama will depend heavily on events that have not yet happened (for starters, the fate of the Iranian nuclear deal) and comparisons, for better or worse, with his successor. Still, it's possible to make some tentative observations.

As I've written before, the administration's greatest achievement was, in its first year, stabilising a collapsing economy and arguably avoiding a second Great Depression. Even now, only eight years after the event, many people forget the crash's horrific nature. Unemployment was increasing roughly 700,000 to 800,000 a month. No one knew when the downward spiral would stop.