OBAMA

• 2008- We have 2 new candidates, Obama vs. McCain.

  Obama was a law professor in Chicago, represents Illinois as senator for the state.

  Hadn’t been in politics long and he has almost no experience, so he chose Joe Biden as his VP to be more in favor with the people.

  John McCain had plenty of experience, was a prisoner of war for a while, ran for Arizona senator, been in politics for a while.

  Chose Sarah Pailin as his VP, who is crazy and is saying whatever pops in her head.
• John McCain shared a similar reputation of not being afraid to be criticized by members of their own party.

  Sarah Palin was gov. of Alaska and mayor for a while before being “VP”.
• Obama wins, got NC and Florida which are considered “Purple States” (states who vote for both sides), surprising bc Florida is mainly republican and Obama was a democrat.

  Obama won voters of every age, first-time, races, ethnicity everything.
• Occupy Wall Street Movement- a short but powerful movement about the distribution of wealth. “I am the 99%” differentiating themselves from the 1% or the rich ppl.

  more for Wall Street reform, reform happens but not bc of the protesters, bc of the economic collapse.

  College educated white men were protesters (?).
• Worst economic crisis than before, not as bad as the Great Depression. Referred to as the Great Recession.

  Involving Mortgages and Home Loans: the amount of people not able to pay their mortgage and lots of homes go into foreclosure, impacts the Banks and the Market.
• Sub Prime Lending- Prime-Lender is someone who has a secure job, owns a home and has a great credit score.

  Sub-Prime Loan is for people who might not be able to pay their mortgage.

  Bank is making money off of loans being given out and re-paid with interest.

  Problem: we give out too many sub-prime loans that is allowed, should never be above 10% total mortgage bubble, in 2006-2008 it was 20%.
• Problem #2: house bubble- too much loans not being paid off for houses, bubble is empty.

  Best way to be economic stable is to be a homeowner, during Bush’s administration we lowered home interest rates and had too many sub-prime loans.

  2008- 2.3 million homes closed off bc of debt.
• For every home is foreclosed on, at least 1 family is homeless, drives down home prices which is bad for the market and industries.
• Problem #3: credit conditions, made it easier for banks to give out risky loans.

  De-regulation of banks: while banks are giving out bad loans, no one is watching them do this bc almost all bank oversight is gone.

  We thought housing market was great until 2008.

  4 trillion dollars of debt.
• Before Obama became president and Bush was still in, a bail out package was being discussed in Congress for big banks. Passed a stimulus package but it had little help.

  Lots of bank merging, banks closing down, being sold, etc.

  Every other major country in the world also got affected.

  Unemployment rate = 10%, higher than stagflation.

  Obama and Bush’s stimulus package together is a trillion dollars.
• Both presidents agreed that they needed to bail the banks out.

  After stimulus packages in 2009, unemployment rate goes down, GDP goes up, economy gets a little better.

  College has gotten more expensive and student loan debt is crazy high.
• Obama Domestic Policy

  Healthcare reform- 2010 he released OBAMACare, AKA Affordable Care Act

  Less people dying b/c they’re poor.

  Law says you can stay on your parents health insurance until 26.

  Website for this Healthcare thing crashed every day bc of the amount of people joining it.
• Increase in premiums for people with good healthcare bc they knew rich people would blame poor people, no regulations when it comes to insurance in US.

  Big shift for Gay-rights movement, Obama repeals Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

  Matthew Shepherd Act- adds sexuality to the list of hate-crimes.

  Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage with Obergefell v. Hodges.
• Obama Foreign Policy

  2011- Civil War in Syria began, Syrian gov’t responded to protests about free speech and religion (etc. ) with murder.

  The people vs. the government.

  US and France backs with the rebels, US provides the rebels with arms, money, food, etc.

  ISIS emerges (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), they want to control Iraq and Syria. Everyone is fighting everyone.

  Humanitarian aid is almost impossible now bc of ISIS.
• US troops in surrounding areas of Syria and Iraq.

  Contain ISIS until 2 weeks ago.
• Edward Snowden- worked for the NSA (National Scope Agency?) and private firms with CIA, discovered the US is spying on their citizens illegally, along with other countries.

  Meets with someone named Glenn and they post about this spying for everyone to see, government is mad they’re exposed, people are mad that they‘re being spied on, allies and other countries are mad too.

  Warrant goes out for Edward’s arrest bc he broke the Espionage Act rule.
• Edward‘s running away was filmed.
• Benghazi- between 2009-2015, CIA agents in Benghazi =, Lydia started telling the US that they need to get out of there or to send more help to keep the Embassy safe.

  An Angry mob killed the ambassador and the agents a day after Hillary Clinton refused to help the agents as Secretary of State.

  Bulk of the blame falls on Clinton.