A passing grade: UF experts see plenty of good in Obama's first 100 days
As University of Florida professors prepare to grade their students, they're giving generally high marks to President Barack Obama for his first 100 days in office.
On the downside, several of Obama's appointees have faced tax problems and other issues. Large bonuses granted to executives at the American Insurance Group, which received federal bailout money, also proved to be an embarrassment for the administration.
The president has "run into some problems that are caused by the difficulty of the situation and the fact that he's had to do a lot of learning on the job," said David Denslow, a research economist for UF's Bureau of Economic and Business Research.
Denslow said the stimulus package might have been structured differently, including more spending than tax cuts, but represented the political reality of what could be passed. He initially thought there was an outside chance that unemployment could reach as high 15 percent, but now thinks the possibility is less likely.
"We've stopped plunging," he said. "We've stopped falling off the cliff.