Snaith revisits "audacity of scope"

Back in September 2009, when the Obama presidency was not even a year old, economist Sean Snaith captured lots of attention when he coined the phrase "audacity of scope." The play on President Barack Obama's best-selling book title was Snaith's trademark clever way of describing how Obama was taking on too much at once, trying to tackle too many big problems simultaneously.

Snaith revisited the phrase Friday when talking about the snail's pace economic recovery that the country and state are undergoing. He says the country is still suffering from the Obama administration's decision to take on too much at once.

Specifically, Snaith said, the administration created a long-lingering cloud of uncertainty over the economy when it simultaneously tackled health care reform (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, disaffectionately labeled by Republicans as Obamacare) and financial services reform (the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act).

The former has health care businesses and insurance companies unsure of what lies ahead; the latter has done the same for banks, Snaith says. "All of this stuff goes into uncertainty," Snaith says. And, as many an economist has said this year, uncertainty is one of the biggest reasons why corporations aren't moving forward with hiring. Hiring, Snaith says, is one of the two "siamese twins" of the economy (the other being the housing market) that need to improve in order for the other to improve.

To read more of Snaith's comments, see Saturday's Bradenton Herald business section.