Back from G-20 summit, Obama targets economy

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Friday that the economy has begun to show "glimmers of hope.” But the president cautioned it remains stressed and will require a lot more work to turn it around.

Once criticized for talking pessimistically about the economy, Obama is highlighting the positive.

"We’re starting to see glimmers of hope across the economy,” he said after a White House meeting with his economic team, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and top economic adviser Larry Summers. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke also participated in the session.

Friday’s meeting was the first between Obama and his economic team since he returned from an overseas trip partly focused on the global economic crisis. Leaders from the Group of 20, the world’s wealthiest and developing economies, met last week in London.

Obama echoed Summers’ prediction a day earlier that the "sense of a ball falling off a table” would end in a few months.

The president highlighted signs of thawing in the credit markets, along with tax cuts he said workers will soon see in their paychecks and a jump in mortgage refinancings due to low interest rates.

But he also threw in a dose of sober reality, adding that "the economy is still under severe stress.”

"We’ve still got a lot of work to do,” Obama said. Without elaborating, he said the administration would take steps in the coming weeks to help further improve the economy.