[ti:Candidates Target Ohio; US Family Wealth at 1992 Levels]
[ar:Steve Ember]
[al:IN THE NEWS]
[by:www.chinavoa.com]
[00:00.00]Go to chinavoa.com for more...
[00:03.85]This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
[00:09.45]In the American presidential campaign,
[00:12.84]Ohio is considered one of the battleground
[00:16.54]or swing states.
[00:18.43]These are states where the race is close
[00:21.97]and could decide the winner this November.
[00:25.88]President Obama and Mitt Romney,
[00:28.98]the Republican Party's likely candidate,
[00:31.77]both gave speeches in Ohio on Thursday.
[00:35.26]The president has been helped
[00:37.86]by falling unemployment rates in Ohio.
[00:41.39]The state's jobless rate dropped 
[00:45.04]from over ten percent in twenty-ten 
[00:47.51]to less than seven and a half percent.
[00:51.19]But President Obama has had a difficult few weeks
[00:55.33]that began with a disappointing jobs report.
[00:59.01]The nation's unemployment rate
[01:01.90]rose to 8.2 percent in May.
[01:05.94]Then, last week at the White House,
[01:09.58]Mr. Obama made the statement that
[01:12.22]"The private sector is doing fine."
[01:15.10]A reporter had asked him about claims
[01:18.49]that he is blaming the Europeans
[01:21.02]for failures in his own policies.
[01:24.91]Mr. Obama answered that more than four million jobs
[01:29.85]have been created over the past twenty-seven months.
[01:33.69]He said that where weaknesses
[01:36.10]are being seen in the economy is in cuts
[01:39.66]by state and local governments.
[01:42.34]But his statement that private employers
[01:46.00]are "doing fine" quickly came under attack.
[01:49.69]Mr. Obama, speaking in Cleveland, Ohio,
[01:54.00]talked about a need to continue investing
[01:57.39]in manufacturing,
[01:59.18]the energy industry and education.
[02:02.83]He also called for economic fair play
[02:06.67]to help the middle class.
[02:09.07]BARACK OBAMA: "The economic vision of Mr. Romney
[02:11.11]and his allies in Congress was tested
[02:13.15]just a few years ago. We tried this.
[02:15.10]Their policies did not grow the economy,
[02:16.79]they did not grow the middle class,
[02:18.29]they did not reduce our debt.
[02:19.94]Why would we think that they would work better this time?"
[02:23.24]Mr. Romney, speaking in Cincinnati, said
[02:26.04]Mr. Obama's policies have hurt job growth.
[02:29.99]MITT ROMNEY: "Talking to small employers and big employers,
[02:32.13]I hear day in and day out they feel this administration
[02:36.27]sees them as their enemy.
[02:38.12]They feel that the Obama policies have made it harder
[02:40.66]for them to put people back to work."
[02:42.95]This week, the Federal Reserve, the central bank,
[02:46.90]reported on changes in family finances
[02:50.45]from two thousand seven to two thousand ten.
[02:54.14]Part of that three-year period
[02:57.23]has been called the Great Recession.
[02:59.83]So how much wealth did the recession
[03:03.44]and slow recovery destroy?
[03:06.40]The report says the median net worth of families in twenty-ten
[03:12.68]was close to the same levels as in nineteen ninety-two.
[03:17.85]Median means the point where half the families
[03:22.33]were higher and half were lower.
[03:25.54]Net worth is what remains after removing debts
[03:31.20]from the value of homes, bank savings and other assets.
[03:36.94]Median net worth was one hundred twenty-six thousand
[03:42.28]four hundred dollars in two thousand seven.
[03:45.94]Three years later it was down to
[03:49.43]seventy-seven thousand three hundred dollars.
[03:52.90]The numbers are corrected for inflation.
[03:56.49]The report says falling home prices
[04:00.38]as a result of the collapse of the housing market
[04:03.89]caused most of the drop in wealth.
[04:07.04]Lawrence Yun is chief economist
[04:10.19]of the National Association of Realtors.
[04:12.92]He says falling home prices
[04:16.06]make families less willing to spend money.
[04:19.89]LAWRENCE YUN: "A decline in home value has a major impact
[04:22.88]on the economy because for most homeowners
[04:25.53]the largest wealth holding is in their housing.
[04:28.87]And, therefore, if the home values decline,
[04:32.30]it makes the homeowners much more conservative
[04:35.55]about their spending outlook."
[04:37.90]Mr. Yun says there are signs
[04:40.09]that the housing market is improving.
[04:42.63]And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
[04:47.73]I'm Steve Ember.
[04:49.68]Go to chinavoa.com for more...