Wednesday, March 30, 2011

This is just the beginning...grab your ass's

I await the democratic rebuttal. It will probably include some inane reference to George Bush...

After two years of Obama ... here's your change!

January 2009

TODAY

% chg

Source

Avg.. Retail price/gallon gas in U.S.

$1.83

$3.104

69.6%

1

Crude oil, European Brent (barrel)

$43..48

$99..02

127.7%

2

Crude oil, West TX Inter. (barrel)

$38..74

$91..38

135.9%

2

Gold: London (per troy oz.)

$853.25

$1,369.50

60.5%

2

Corn, No.2 yellow, Central IL

$3.56

$6.33

78.1%

2

Soybeans, No. 1 yellow, IL

$9.66

$13..75

42.3%

2

Sugar, cane, raw, world, lb. Fob

$13..37

$35..39

164.7%

2

Unemployment rate, non-farm, overall

7.6%

9.4%

23.7%

3

Unemployment rate, blacks

12.6%

15.8%

25.4%

3

Number of unemployed

11,616,000

14,485,000

24.7%

3

Number of fed. Employees, ex. Military (curr = 12/10 prelim)

2,779,000

2,840,000

2.2%

3

Real median household income (2008 v 2009)

$50,112

$49,777

-0.7%

4

Number of food stamp recipients (curr = 10/10)

31,983,716

43,200,878

35.1%

5

Number of unemployment benefit recipients (curr = 12/10)

7,526,598

9,193,838

22.2%

6

Number of long-term unemployed

2,600,000

6,400,000

146.2%

3

Poverty rate, individuals (2008 v 2009)

13.2%

14.3%

8.3%

4

People in poverty in U.S. (2008 v 2009)

39,800,000

43,600,000

9.5%

4

U.S.. Rank in Economic Freedom World Rankings

5

9

n/a

10

Present Situation Index (curr = 12/10)

29.9

23.5

-21.4%

11

Failed banks (curr = 2010 + 2011 to date)

140

164

17.1%

12

U.S.. Dollar versus Japanese yen exchange rate

89.76

82.03

-8.6%

2

U.S.. Money supply, M1, in billions (curr = 12/10 prelim)

1,575.1

1,865.7

18.4%

13

U.S.. Money supply, M2, in billions (curr = 12/10 prelim)

8,310.9

8,852.3

6.5%

13

National debt, in trillions

$10..627

$14..052

32.2%

14

Just take this last item: In the last two years we have accumulated national debt at a rate more than 27 times as fast as during the rest of our entire nation's history. Over 27 times as fast. Metaphorically speaking, if you are driving in the right lane doing 65 MPH and a car rockets past you in the left lane. 27 times faster, it would be doing 1755 MPH!

Sources:

(1) U.S. Energy Information Administration; (2) Wall Street Journal; (3) Bureau of Labor Statistics; (4) Census Bureau; (5) USDA; (6) U.S. Dept. Of Labor; (7) FHFA; (8) Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller; (9) RealtyTrac; (10) Heritage Foundation and WSJ; (11) The Conference Board; (12) FDIC; (13) Federal Reserve; (14) U.S. Treasury


6 comments:

Baxter said...

Al -

Those numbers are not surprising at all. Obama inherited a collapsing economy that still had some room to fall before his policies could kick in and arrest Bush collapse.

If you go back and look at the numbers that Bush inherited and the numbers that he handed off to Obama, you will be shocked. Inheriting a $280B surplus and handing off a $1.3T deficit is a pretty awful legacy. In fact, you could say it reminds one of Hoover (R).

Commodity inflation is the consequence of extraordinary measures taken by the Fed and Obama Administration to prevent the spread and deepening of the Bush collapse.

Obama's first two years have been a tremendous success. Our influence in the world has grown by leaps and bounds, due the regard and love felt by the international community. Look how fast he was able to get UN approval to go to Libya - something Bush never accomplished with anything.

God bless President Obama. Repeal the 22nd Amendment!

terry said...

Al you left off one important statistic. American Lives lost in Iraq and Afghanistan under Bush. That would be 5,961 dead. Thats 11,932 broken hearted parents, who will never see their children again. Take some real time and think about that and tell me again what threat they posed to us to warrent that many lives.. You can Knock Obama all you want, Bush will go down as the worst president in my lifetime.

terry said...

My God soybeans went up under Obama! Shame on him!

riegels rant said...

If you think he is a success I would hate to hear what you feel is failure with this Admn. housing market still sucks, federal debt is 14 trillion and 4 trillion added by this Admn, Libya..be rest assured we will have boots on the ground there within 2-3 months...can't get a budget passed..I know it is those tea party and pesky republicans fault, and Harry Reed is a friggin saint

riegels rant said...

Terry leave it to you to look at soybeans...what a tool box..you might think that when the Admn leave out food and energy in their computation of inflation that would be a light switch that should go on, but when you live in the dark I guess you do not see those things

Baxter said...

Al -

Look at it objectively. Obama has held the line on the budget when he inherited a massive $1.3T growing deficit. The economy was collapsing and shedding jobs. The economy is now growing, adding jobs, while Obama actually reduced the deficit his first full year. It would have gone down some more if not for the extension of all he Bush tax cuts.

Objectively speaking, the last two years have been far better than the relative performance of Bush & Co. I look forward to Reagan's test in 2012: Are you better off than you were four years ago?