国际英语新闻：U.S. economy unlikely to show strong recovery until mid to late 2011

On the other hand, he said, "there really hasn't been much done by the U.S. government to stimulate growth in the past few months. It is because it is very difficult for the Obama administration to get a victory with passing legislation (and hence policy) in the Congress."

"I think growing the economy and cutting down unemployment rate is at the top of the Obama Administration's agenda. They would like to do more of that, except that given the current congressional landscape, they have not been able to do as much as they would like to," he said.

"In the Senate, any victory would need 60 votes and the Obama administration does not have 60 votes. They managed to get through a small couple of pieces of legislation, including a small businesses legislation that was signed this week, on tax cuts. This will help small businesses and in turn the economy. But there hasn't been much else done over the past 6 months that will make a significant dent on unemployment rate," Besanko said.

The Obama administration is looking for ways to stimulate the U. S. economy, but any significant policy change remains unlikely until next January due to the upcoming mid-term election, he predicted.

"There is usually a lag period of 6 months before any policy starts to show its impact on the economy. Effects of any new policy passed in January will not be obvious until mid-late 2011," observed the economist.