In the past, Obama has argued that recoveries from a financial crisis like the one that caused 2007-09 recession are invariably slow and painful.
In June, for example, Obama said that "this was not your normal recession."
He added that "throughout history, it has typically taken countries up to 10 years to recover from financial crises of this magnitude. Today, the economies of many European countries still aren't growing. And their unemployment rate averages around 11%."
Obama points to the work of economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, who say that recoveries from financial crises tend to be protracted. Recently, the two wrotethat "if one compares U.S. output per capita and employment performance with those of other countries that suffered systemic financial crises in 2007-08, the U.S. performance is better than average."
But the claim that financial crises always produce slow recoveries isn't set in stone.
In fact, an October 2011 paper by the Atlanta Fed concluded that "U.S. history provides no support for linking low employment and high unemployment in the current recovery with the financial crisis of 2007—2008."
And a November 2011 paper by economists at Rutgers University and the Cleveland Fed concluded that while recessions tied to financial crises tend to be deeper than average, the recoveries also tend to be stronger than average.
Study co-author Michael Bardo noted that, based on these findings, "the slow recovery that we are experiencing from the recession that ended in July 2009 is an exception to the historical pattern."