Obama to deliver speech in N.Y. on financial crisis

At Federal Hall in New York City, Obama “will discuss the aggressive steps the administration has taken to bring the economy back from the brink, the commitment to winding down the government’s role in the financial sector, and the actions the United States and the global community must take to prevent a crisis like this from ever happening again,’’ the White House announced yesterday.

Also yesterday, White House economists asserted that the $787 billion economic stimulus package Obama championed had created or saved “slightly more’’ than 1 million jobs and has most helped the states most hurt by the recession.

The White House Council on Economic Advisers cautioned that the estimates should “be regarded as preliminary and understood to be subject to considerable uncertainty’’ and that measures other than the stimulus have boosted the economy.

Unemployment is still hovering near 10 percent nationally, and the Labor Department reported last week that since the recession began in December 2007, the jobless rolls grew by 7.4 million Americans.

Obama promised the stimulus would create or save 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year.

But critics have questioned the figures as far too rosy and said that it is extremely difficult to determine whether a job has been “saved.’’

“Today’s White House jobs report is one more example of this administration’s use of smoke and mirrors to mask the failure of the Democrats’ costly $787 billion stimulus bill,’’ Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele said in a statement.

“The reality for countless Americans whose jobs have not been ‘saved’ is they get to join the ranks of the three million neighbors, friends, and family members who have become unemployed since President Obama took office,’’ he added.

GLOBE STAFF

Making it public for the first time, Obama quoted from the letter to urge lawmakers Wednesday night to pass health care as a moral issue that showed the country’s character.

Steele called it a “political tool.’’

Questioned yesterday on CNN about that characterization, Steele backtracked a little.

“I’m not slamming the president on this,’’ he said. “I just thought something like that was so personal in many respects, and particularly so soon after the senator’s death - I just didn’t think it was the right time to reveal that or have that conversation or to say it.’’

Democratic Congressional Campaign chairman Chris Van Hollen blasted Steele, saying that his “outlandish comments only serve to increase the acrimony and deny the American people the substantive debate on health insurance reform that this critical challenge merits.’’

GLOBE STAFF

“True Compass’’ is scheduled to come out next week, but publisher Twelve has decided to hold off “indefinitely’’ on a digital edition.

The head of Twelve, Jonathan Karp, said yesterday that the delay was a “business decision’’ and added that the pictures and illustrations in “True Compass’’ cannot be duplicated in e-book form.

Digital sales were so tiny until recently that the publishing industry routinely released e-books at the same time or even before the paper editions.

But the growth of electronic sales, widely believed to be between 1 percent to 2 percent of the overall market and higher still for current bestsellers, has made publishers worry that the market would suffer for more expensive hardcover editions.

“True Compass’’ has a list price of $35.

E-books usually sell for under $10.

ASSOCIATED PRESS