As the Obama Administration comes to a close, it’s important to look back at the past eight years to appreciate how far America and its global partners have come, as well as to better understand the challenges we will face over the coming years.
Today, America’s unemployment rate is 4.6 percent versus 10 percent in 2009. Our country has seen the longest streak of job growth on record, and wages have grown faster over the past few years than at any time in the past 40. And America’s economic growth and prosperity have fostered a stronger transatlantic economic relationship that has led to tangible benefits here in Europe: in 2015, US imports from the EU totaled $426 billion – an increase of 37 percent since 2005.