"Plain talk" from Obama on the recession

I want to begin with some plain talk. The economy's performance in the last quarter of 2008 was the worst in over 25 years. And, frankly, the first quarter of this year holds out little promise for better returns.

From Wall Street to Main Street, to kitchen tables all across America, our economic challenge is clear. And now it is up to us to meet it.

One of the challenges is to jump-start lending so businesses and families can finance the purchases of everything from inventory and payroll, to a home, a car, or a college education. We have to jump-start the credit markets, and get private lending going again.

No matter how good of a job we do here, that's going to be critical. And that's why the Treasury and the Federal Reserve are launching today the Consumer and Business Lending Initiative, which, when fully implemented, will generate up to a trillion dollars of new lending for the American people. And this will help unlock our frozen credit markets, which is absolutely essential for economic recovery.