President Obama told the New York Times that “he was worried that years of widening income inequality and the lingering effects of the financial crisis had frayed the country’s social fabric and undermined Americans’ belief in opportunity.”

Upward mobility “was part and parcel of who we were as Americans. And that’s what’s been eroding over the last 20, 30 years, well before the financial crisis.”

He added: “If we don’t do anything, then growth will be slower than it should be. Unemployment will not go down as fast as it should. Income inequality will continue to rise,” he said. “That’s not a future that we should accept.”

Walter Shapiro listened to President Obama’s speech on the economy today but says it “comes three years too late. In early 2010, Obama confronted the question that ultimately every president has to answer: What will be my legacy?”

“Obama chose health care reform, and it has made all the difference. To govern is to choose – and by choosing health care, Obama inadvertently lost his chance to put a lasting imprint on the economy. High unemployment, and the personal anguish that comes with it, will be as much a legacy of his two terms in office as Obamacare.”

President Obama begins today a series of speeches on the economy, the AP reports.

“The trio of speeches comes as Congress prepares to leave Washington next week for its monthlong August recess. These and other speeches planned for the coming weeks and months are designed to increase public pressure on lawmakers in hopes of avoiding showdowns over taxes and spending in the fall. The White House believes such stalemates will stunt the economy, which has added more than 200,000 jobs a month in the past six months. The new federal budget year begins Oct. 1 and the government will soon hit its borrowing limit.”

U.S. employers added 195,000 jobs in June, a sign of solid improvements in the labor market, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The unemployment rate remained steady at 7.6%.

National Journal: “But now for the really good news: We were quite wrong about job gains in April and May. Initial reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a jobs gain of 149,000 in April and 175,000 in May. In the latest reports, those numbers were revised upward to 199,000 in April and 195,000 in May. That’s a combined gain of 70,000 jobs from earlier reports. So, since April, it turns out that the economy has actually gained nearly 200,000 new jobs a month.”

Wonk Wire will round up reactions and analysis.

Wall Street Journal: “The U.S. economy grew at a 1.8% annual rate in the first quarter, slower than the earlier estimates of 2.4% growth. Economists had expected a 2.4% final reading for first-quarter growth.”

A new Urban Institute study finds the net worth of today’s 30-somethings — adjusted for inflation — is down 21% from what 30-somethings enjoyed in 1983, CBS News reports.

Al Gore said capitalism “is coming under increased scrutiny and needs to change as short-term thinking has driven a wedge between investing and the creation of value for corporations,” Bloomberg reports.

Said Gore: “There is a continuing focus on short-term decision making in markets and that is distorting the allocation of resources. It’s hurting the quality of decisions that are made by companies.”

Former Mitt Romney economic adviser Greg Mankiw has a new paper that tries to “defend the 1 percent” and the current state of income equality in the United States.

Writes Mankiw: “In the end, the left’s arguments for increased redistribution are valid in principle but dubious in practice… If the current tax system were regressive, or if the incomes of the top 1 percent were much greater than their economic contributions, or if the rich enjoyed government services in excess of what they pay in taxes, then the case for increasing the top tax rate would indeed be strong. But there is no compelling reason to believe that any of these premises holds true.”

Charlie Cook: “The good
news for President Obama and his administration is that all the
controversies swirling around the White House have not had a significant
impact on his job-approval ratings. The bad news is that, like so many
other second-term administrations, Obama’s may end up spending so much
of its last four years fighting fires and fending off congressional
inquiries that it gets little else done… if the administration is
bogged down in controversy, voters won’t be handing the president or
anyone else any laurels for the economic recovery. That’s what Obama,
his administration, and congressional Democrats facing voters next year
ought to worry about.”

Wall Street Journal: “The U.S. economy added 175,000 jobs in May, signaling the economic recovery remains broadly on track. The Labor Department said the unemployment rate rose slightly to 7.6% from 7.5% in April.”

Federal Reserve officials “have mapped out a strategy for winding down an unprecedented $85 billion-a-month bond-buying program meant to spur the economy–an effort to preserve flexibility and manage highly unpredictable market expectations,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Officials say they plan to reduce the amount of bonds they buy in careful and potentially halting steps, varying their purchases as their confidence about the job market and inflation evolves. The timing on when to start is still being debated.”

Kevin Drum: “As near as I can tell, the strategy the GOP’s brain trust came up with after the November election was twofold. First, try to expand its coalition by reining in its tea party excesses and tamping down a bit on its anti-gay, pro-gun, anti-immigrant wing. Second, if that didn’t work–and it was always a long shot–keep the economy in lousy shape so that at least Democrats couldn’t take advantage of their paralysis.”

“So far, it seems to be working. Strategy A, as expected, is on life support. But Strategy B is coming to the rescue. By ending the payroll tax holiday in January and seeing their sequester handiwork take effect in March, Republicans have kept the economy barely dog paddling along.”

The U.S. economy added 165,000 jobs last month, more than the 148,000 gain expected by economists, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The unemployment rate fell to 7.5%, the lowest rate unemployment rate since December 2008.

The Huffington Post reports that a group of Republicans are proposing legislation that could give President Obama “an unintentional assist with disagreeable unemployment numbers — by eliminating the key economic statistic altogether.”

“The bill, introduced last week by Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC), would bar the U.S. Census Bureau from conducting nearly all surveys except for a decennial population count. Such a step that would end the government’s ability to provide reliable estimates of the employment rate. Indeed, the government would not be able to produce any of the major economic indices that move markets every month, said multiple statistics experts, who were aghast at the proposal.”

The U.S. economy generated just 88,000 jobs last month, the smallest gain in 10 months, adding to fresh evidence that the pace of hiring has slowed, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The unemployment rate fell to 7.6% because of an unanticipated high number of people dropping out of the job market.

First Read: “Don’t be surprised if this lower-than-expected number puts pressure on Congress to alleviate the sequester cuts.”

The Week: Headed for a slowdown?

Micah Cohen notes that President Obama’s advantage over Congressional Republicans on economic issues “has all but vanished. Public approval of his handling of the economy has slipped, according to polls, and surveys now show that a roughly equal number of Americans favor Mr. Obama as favor Congressional Republicans on economic matters.”

“It is not clear what is causing the decline, but it doesn’t seem to be the actual economy. There are increasing signs that the recovery is accelerating. Recent reports on jobs and housing have been unexpectedly strong. And all the while, the stock market has been bullish.”

Wonk Wire: Finally, signs of a solid economic recovery.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke admits he’s “spoken to the president a bit” about whether he would serve another term but says he feels “no personal responsibility to stay at the helm until the Fed winds down
its unprecedented policies to stimulate the economy,” Bloomberg reports.

Bernanke’s term ends in January 2014.

Wonk Wire: Why Bernanke needs to serve a third term.

A new Gallup poll
finds that public support for new federal spending to create jobs is, as Greg Sargent puts it,
“simply overwhelming.”

Key findings: 72% support federal spending “to put people to work on urgent infrastructure
repairs” and
72% support a “federal jobs creation law that would spend
government money for a program designed to create more than 1 million
new jobs.”