The argument will be that President Obama inherited this crisis, recession, depression or whatever you want to call it. But we didn’t hear any complaints during the 2008 election campaign, so we assume that President Obama wanted the job and had a grasp of what it was he was signing on for.
He got the job based on great marketing and the many promises made to his constituents. Many of them believed they’d receive free gas, free homes, and that they wouldn’t have to work for the American dream – it would simply be handed to them.
Oh, how very wrong they were. As with all promises from politicians, one should always expect exactly the opposite.
George Bush most certainly made a mess of things. President Obama promised to change that.
According to this data, however, the hope that millions had in President Obama was for naught. It really is stunning how bad things have gotten, and worse, conditions will continue to deteriorate unless the magic money printing presses of the Federal Reserve and continued spending by Congress somehow manage to turn it all around. Given that we’ve spent trillions already, engaged in destructive monetary policy, and learned absolutely nothing, we suspect the trends below will continue:
| January 2009 | TODAY | % chg | Source | |
| Avg. retail price/gallon gas in U.S. (regular conventional) |
$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 |
| Natural gas, Henry Hub, $ per MMbtu |
$4.85 |
$4.48 |
-7.6% |
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 |
| Producer Price Index:Â all commodities |
171.0 |
189.9 |
11.1% |
3 |
| 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. uniformed military (curr = 12/10 prelim) |
2,779,000 |
2,840,000 |
2.2% |
3 |
| Real median household income (2008 vs 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, in millions |
2.6 |
6.4 |
146.2% |
3 |
| Poverty rate, individuals (2008 vs 2009) |
13.2% |
14.3% |
8.3% |
4 |
| People in poverty in U.S., in millions  (2008 vs 2009) |
39.8 |
43.6 |
9.5% |
4 |
| House price index (current = Q3 2010) |
198.7 |
192.7 |
-3.0% |
7 |
| S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index: 20 city composite (curr = 10/10) |
146.4 |
145.3 |
-0.8% |
8 |
| Number of properties subject of foreclosurefilings, in millions |
2.82 |
2.87 |
1.7% |
9 |
| U.S. rank in Economic Freedom World Rankings |
5 |
9 |
n/a |
10 |
| Consumer Confidence Index (curr = 12/10) |
37.7 |
52.5 |
39.3% |
11 |
| 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 preliminary) |
1,575.1 |
1,865.7 |
18.4% |
13 |
| U.S. money supply, M2, in billions  (curr = 12/10 preliminary) |
8,310.9 |
8,852.3 |
6.5% |
13 |
| National debt, in trillions |
$10.627 |
$14.052 |
32.2% |
14 |
Sources: 1)U.S. Energy Information Admin 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 [Data sourced by K.E. Campbell of American Thinker]
Hat tip Patriot One
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