US economy better positioned for future: Barack Obama

"The fact is that while a lot of work remains, especially to rebuild a strong middle class and offer working folks new pathways to rise into the middle class, our economy is better positioned for tomorrow than most of those other countries hit by the financial crisis," Obama said.

He was speaking at a White House event to announce the nomination of Jack Lew as his next Treasury Secretary.

The tough decisions outgoing Secretary Timothy Geithner made and carried out deserve a lot of credit for this improvement in the US economy, Obama said.

A close confidant, Lew is currently Obama's Chief of Staff.

Announcing Lew's nomination, which needs to be confirmed by the US Senate like other Cabinet appointments, Obama praised Geithner for rescuing the country from its worst economic crisis in generations.

"When the history books are written, Tim Geithner's going to go down as one of our finest secretaries of the treasury," Obama said.

He said the US economy is back on growth path for past three years and country's businesses have created nearly six million new jobs.

"The money that we spent to save the financial system has largely been paid back. We put in place rules to prevent that kind of financial meltdown from ever happening again, an auto industry was saved, we made sure taxpayers are

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