There are two very simple questions that need to be asked over the next eighteen months. The first is, Are you better off than you were four years ago?
If the answer is “Yes,” the second question is even more blunt: Really? How are you managing that?
| March ’07 | March ’11 | |
| Unemployment Rate | 4.40% | 8.80% |
| Gas price (per gallon) | $2.56 | $3.60 |
| National Debt | 8.84 trillion | 14.27 trillion |
| Monthly deficit | 95 billion | 189 billion |
| Median House Price* | $262,600 | $202,100 |
| S&P 500 Index | 1420.86 | 1332.31 |
| Employment-Population Ratio | 63.3% | 58.5% |
| Consumer Price Index* | 205.532 | 221.309 |
(Items with an * are using February 2011 data)
…because the rest of the country’s kind of getting hammered, here.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
Moe Lane
Dan Spencer
Dan McLaughlin
Jeff Emanuel
well I am doing a little better because...
kyle8 (Diary) Monday, April 11th at 6:12PM EDT (link)I payed off all of my bills back in early 2008, and then converted one third of my remaining savings into gold. I have gained about $28,000 in value since then. (Only on paper, I would have to sell the gold to realize it, but I ain’t selling just yet.)
It wasn’t hard to see that we were headed into a regime like we had in the late 1970′s. I was able to act, so I did.
“Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty”
Kyle
Good times...
Brian Paasch Monday, April 11th at 6:27PM EDT (link)If the answer is “Yes,” the second question is even more blunt: Really? How are you managing that?
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Maybe the one who says “yes” works for the Federal Government?
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“Be respectful…” Did that. Didn’t work. Now I’m cranky.
http://roughedgesandsharpelbows.blogspot.com/
I can't believe you beat my to that by one minute
reaganiterepublicanresistance Monday, April 11th at 6:29PM EDT (link)sharp elbows indeed lol
The Reaganite Republican
Or is the Repo Man
6eorge Jetson (Diary) Monday, April 11th at 11:21PM EDT (link)Business has never been better for him.
Campbell’s Soup does well in recessions.
Click to see full size image
I'm doing better
michaelku Wednesday, April 13th at 1:20PM EDT (link)I’m better off than I was two years ago. I’m a hard worker and don’t believe in blaming others for the problems in the economy. I also didn’t buy a house I couldn’t afford like a lot of people that helped to cause the problems in the economy.
Moe, the 2nd question SHOULD be:
reaganiterepublicanresistance Monday, April 11th at 6:28PM EDT (link)“Really- which federal agency?”
The Reaganite Republican
Everyone needs to kick any libs butt
izoneguy (Diary) Monday, April 11th at 6:43PM EDT (link)When they say – “Obama inherited this mess from George Bush”….
Not only did he “inherit” the so called “mess” – Obama has made it much worse.
Nothing Obama is doing is fixing what is wrong then or now.
Last year 43.6 million people turned to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—a 67 percent increase over the 26 million who received food stamps in 2007.
Graphical representation of job losses since Jan. 2007
http://radioviceonline.com/graphical-representation-of-job-losses-since-jan-2007/
Those who had once simpered: “I don’t want to destroy the rich, I only want to seize a little of their surplus to help the poor, just a little, they’ll never miss it!” – then, later, had snapped: “The tycoons can stand being squeezed; they’ve amassed enough to last them for three generations” – then, later, had yelled: “Why should the people suffer while businessmen have reserves to last a year?” – now were screaming: “Why should we starve while some people have reserves to last a week?” – Atlas Shrugged
Some of us are better off than 4 years ago...
congressworksforus (Diary) Monday, April 11th at 8:29PM EDT (link)We work hard, and it’s reaping rewards, DESPITE a bunch of politicians doing their damndest to make sure we aren’t.
That said, we are more concerned now than we were 4 years ago, that’s for sure!
Remember, if the left wins, abortion will not only be legal, it will be mandatory.
We have the numbers on our side.
msctex (Diary) Monday, April 11th at 11:43PM EDT (link)Now the Republicans must use them without mercy. Use Perot’s chart technique if necessary, but pound home the simple reality of what Pelosi and Obama have done.
If only to assuage this sneaking feeling I have that both may be crazy enough to believe they’ve helped people, in some form or fashion.
Sobering Numbers
Wayne (Diary) Tuesday, April 12th at 1:25AM EDT (link)painting small strokes on a broad canvas. We are in a last stand for the salvation of the greatest society the world has ever known. Brought to its knees by its own success. How the lessons of these times are taught to our children will be key in how we recover from the worst economic decline in global history. The irony is that we have an ideologue in the White house and a political system populated by opportunistic bureaucrats and political elite that constructed the framework of our demise over generations.
I want to be wrong and work every day as if that fear is irrational. But it looks like this train can’t be stopped, only slowed down and we save minutes only in the grand scheme of things. Still, I will try my best to keep faith with our founding fathers vision.
My two cents.
Wayne
“To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father’s has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association—the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.” – Thomas Jefferson -
No offense, but the comparison should be to January of 09
Death_of_the_Donkey (Diary) Tuesday, April 12th at 9:21AM EDT (link)and not to March of 07 (which was before the recession even began). The January 09 comps are what will come up in the campaign (maybe December 08, but in either case it will be numbers from during the recession). And if I was running, I wouldn’t even try to touch the housing issue (since that will bring up bad things like why we didn’t regulate subprime loans or derivatives.
Would you still want to compare Debt & Deficit #'s
johnt Tuesday, April 12th at 10:10AM EDT (link)I would. Housing ? Why not? I take it you mean the titanic scam that started in Jimmy Carter’s administration called the Community Reinvestment Act, that was expanded in Bill “you need an icepack” Clintons, that was regulated, by Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, wherein Democrats Franklin Raines & Rahm Emanuel made millions while “managing” these then quasi government agencies, & into which we are still pouring billions, that was protected by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, and given a whitewash by a phony commission headed by Democrat Phil Angelides, and the market that that has totally collapsed under The O.
The recession? I’d love to see the Dems try and go back into time & ignore the previous four years, all and many other things considered.
No offense.
“a man’s admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him”. Tocqueville
The CRA had nothing to do with the housing bubble
Death_of_the_Donkey (Diary) Tuesday, April 12th at 10:18AM EDT (link)and that FACT has been proven a thousand times over. The fact is that nearly all the subprime loans during the bubble were given by non-CRA governed entities (ie mortgage brokers) and that Fannie and Freddie got into the subprime securitization game quite late (which is one reason why they suffered such huge losses), before that it was all a mortgage broker to Wall Street game (and thus CRA was completely irrelevant to the economics of the matter).
As to the other point, yes, I would still make the other comparisons now, just that the date we compare against needs to be back to when Obama took office and not some random point during the Bush presidency.
Donkey, It's more then CRA
johnt Tuesday, April 12th at 1:40PM EDT (link)The interference with the mortgage market started with the CRA, and expanded from that. to the point of Fannie and Freddie holding or guaranteeing five to six trillion dollars of the entire U S mortgage market, roughly 50%. Must have been a helluva late start. That is why such as Raines and Emanuel and other Dem worthies were placed in these agencies, to enlarge their coverage, If you could cite where brokers booked, actually booked, loans I would appreciate it, as opposed to placing loans, banks being the entities involved. A still dying market will weigh on Obama, & that goes to the two agencies, still being funded and still trying to piss $$ away.
And if you lend, you are governed by CRA, not all loans, but still obligated under it’s provisions,as for example you would be governed by EEOC as an employer.
In any case Obama and friends will have a heavy plate on their hands as 2012 looms.
“a man’s admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him”. Tocqueville
It's an act of faith to take the 8.8% unemployment
johnt Tuesday, April 12th at 9:41AM EDT (link)figure, the sort of faith that one has for overweight, jolly men coming down your chimney in December.
“a man’s admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him”. Tocqueville
That's not faith.
msctex (Diary) Tuesday, April 12th at 9:47AM EDT (link)It’s credulity. Much like the “Clinton Surplus,” Reality will kick in the instant enough adults are in power to keep the kids from lying.
Actually, given the nature of this Administration, that period where the curtain will go up is pretty scary to contemplate. It could tank the markets.
the recession doesn't bother me
simplyscott Tuesday, April 12th at 8:37PM EDT (link)1 — i actually have a ARM loan on my house, which is a low end house in a high end neighborhood in downtown Baltimore, so my monthly payment is significantly lower than it was a couple of years ago.
2 – i have been paying off all my debt and not over-spending, so i am a month away from being debt free, minus my mortgage.
3 – i save a rather considerable portion of my savings each month (in comparison with everyone i know), so i feel safe if anything happens.
4 – i live downtown, so i can walk everywhere, except work — movies, doctor, pharmacy, gym, shopping, food, even baseball and football — thus as gas goes up, it really doesn’t bother me at the pump.
sorry to say this, but the recession has been very friendly to me!
Obviousley the Recession isn't bothering you
Michael Dugas (Diary) Tuesday, April 12th at 9:10PM EDT (link)Your lack of compassion for your fellow citizens ,who are suffering, not with standing. Of course the spectre of hyper-inflation and the irresponsible over printing and devaluation of our dollar should have you concerned that your savings may end up being worth squat. And the skyrocketing cost of energy might be worthy of a bit of thought since heating that Baltimore hovel might prove extremely expensive. And then there is the skyrocketing cost of food…….ah well what’s to worry about right? Maybe the unemployed starving masses will look upon you as an example and NOT just a opportunity for a meal.
Intro to Federalist Papers; section 5;
paragraph 4.
“…dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than under the zeal for a firm and efficient government.”
Remember: A Citizen on the dole is a Liberal Vote at the Polls.
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Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum !