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Friday, January 27, 2012

America Before President Obama Took Office and Now: One Chart Tells The Story

By Susan Duclos

Sometimes a clear side by side visual says more than a million written words ever could. Such a visual has been made available from Representative Dave Camp (R-MI), chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, who publishes a comparison chart which shows the numbers before Obama and after Obama. These are things Barack Obama "conveniently omitted from his SOTU speech."

America Before President Obama Took Office and Now


Before

Now

Change

Number of Unemployed1

12.0 Million

13.1 Million

+9%

Long-Term Unemployed2

2.7 Million

5.6 Million

+107%

Unemployment Rate3

7.8%

8.5%

+9%

“High Unemployment” States4

22

43

+95%

Misery Index5

7.83

11.46

+46%

Price of Gas6

$1.85

$3.39

+83%

“Typical” Monthly Family Food Cost7

$974

$1,013

+4%

Median Value of Single-Family Home8

$196,600

$169,100

-14%

Rate of Mortgage Delinquencies9

6.62%

10.23%

+55%

U.S. National Debt10

$10.6 Trillion

$15.2 Trillion

+43%

1 Number of unemployed in January 2009 and December 2011. http://www.bls.gov/data/#unemployment.
2
“Long-term unemployed” means for over 26 weeks; data for January 2009 and December 2011. http://www.bls.gov/data/#unemployment.
3
Unemployment rates in January 2009 and December 2011. http://www.bls.gov/data/#unemployment.
4
“High unemployment” means having a 3-month average unemployment rate of 6% or higher. From the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ “Extended Benefits Trigger Notice” for January 18, 2009 and January 22, 2012. http://www.ows.doleta.gov/unemploy/trigger/2009/trig_011809.html and http://ows.doleta.gov/unemploy/euc_trigger/2012/euc_012212.html.
5
The “Misery Index” equals unemployment plus inflation. For January 2009 and December 2012. http://www.miseryindex.us/indexbymonth.asp.
6
Average retail price per gallon, January 2009 week 3 and January 2012 week 4. http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=EMM_EPMR_PTE_NUS_DPG&f=W.
7
U.S. Department of Agriculture, values represent monthly “moderate” cost per family of four for January 2009 and November 2011. http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/USDAFoodCost-Home.htm.
8
U.S. median sales price of existing single-family homes for metropolitan areas for 2008 and 2011 Q3. http://www.realtor.org/research/research/metroprice.
9
Residential mortgage delinquencies (real estate loans) for 2008 Q4 and 2011 Q3. http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/chargeoff/default.htm.
10
Values for January 21, 2009 and January 23, 2012. http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np.



H/T Joel B. Pollak, via BG.

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