Judgments

Economists Give Obama Failing Grade

Team "overpromised and underdelivered."

President Obama may be popular with the public, but economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal give him and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner failing grades for their efforts to revive the economy. A majority of the 49 economists polled told surveyors they were dissatisfied with the Obama team’s economic policies; on average, they gave him a grade of 59 out of 100, while Geithner got just 51. (Fed chief Ben Bernanke, meanwhile, scored a respectable 71.) The Journal does cast a somewhat suspicious light on the judgmental economists, however, remarking that many of them “have been continually surprised by the depth of the downturn…On average, they expect the downturn to end in October. Last month, they said the bottom would arrive in August.”