Let me tell you why this challenge has been so important. Our economy is the strongest in a generation. We have a budget surplus and nearly 17 million new jobs. Unemployment has been below five percent for more than a year, at a 28-year low. Inflation is at historic lows.
Wages are once again on the rise.
More than ever, this economic strength rests upon the strength of an increasingly interdependent world. Our own recent growth depends heavily on expanded exports of American products and services. But over the last year, the world's financial markets have been in turmoil. Countries all around the world are having a difficult time managing their own economies and, therefore, affording American goods, from wheat to apples, from computer chips to jumbo jets. We must act to promote our own prosperity and to protect our people at this critical moment by working to stabilize the global economy and helping our friends to restore growth.