WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The big problems facing the country haven't been fixed yet, but we're moving in the right direction, President Barack Obama asserted in a prime-time news conference on Tuesday.
"We are beginning to see signs of progress," he said.
Obama promised to be persistent. "We're going to stay with it as long as I am in this office," he said, comparing the country to an ocean liner that takes time to turn. If the answers were easy, all the problems would have been solved by now, he said.
Obama also defended his economic policies, saying that the stimulus, the bank bailouts and the budget proposals are all aimed at one thing: restoring and maintaining America's standing as the most prosperous country on earth.
"We will recover from this recession," the president said. "But it will take time, it will take patience, and it will take an understanding that when we all work together; when each of us looks beyond our own short-term interests to the wider set of obligations we have to each other -- that's when we succeed."
Noting that the plan to address toxic assets in the banks had been well-received after many had all but given up on Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Obama declared that the country is headed toward improvement, even as he ticked off the looming challenges the U.S. faces now and over the longer term.
Responding to critics who say his budget proposals are too ambitious, Obama said that if the federal government doesn't tackle out-of-control health-care costs or dependence on oil, "we won't grow."
The old economy of boom and bust was an "illusion of prosperity," he said.
Most of the questions from the journalists concerned economic subjects, and Obama hewed to the same old themes: The current economic crisis must not distract us from the work of building a stronger foundation that will bring "long-term growth as opposed to fleeting prosperity."
Obama again denounced the bonuses being paid to some employees of American Internation Group Inc. AIG, -0.54% the failed insurance company that has received $170 billion in federal aid. At the same time, he said investors and entrepreneurs should not be "demonized."
He said he didn't speak out against the bonuses immediately because "I like to know what I am talking about when I speak."
He endorsed the call earlier Tuesday by Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for expanded authority to regulate all large financial institutions, which he said would be greeted by strong support from both the public and the Congress. See full story on request for new powers.
The world has no need for a global currency to replace the U.S. dollar, he said. He scoffed at the notion that foreign investors were souring on the dollar.
"The dollar is extraordinarily strong right now" because the American economy and political system, while flawed, are stronger than many others. See full story on Chinese call for new world currency.
Ahead of the Group of 20 meetings in London next week, Obama called on the major economies of the world to stimulate demand at home, to avoid protectionism and to re-regulate the financial system.
Every country needs to do what it can, rather than hoping to free ride on the efforts of others to end the recession, he said.