Tuesday, October 18, 2011

WRONG DIRECTION

The direction of the country is very disconcerting. As much as jobs and the economy are on our minds, our nationalism and values are under attack too. It seems that one company after another is disallowing the flag at its place of business; patriotism is substituted for multicultural awareness; values are displaced for tolerance, and God is being systematically driven out of America. What makes this decline so insidious and lethal is that it is hard to measure. Meanwhile, it slowly erodes this nation like age slowly erodes our bodies.

While some aspects of Americana are hard to measure, we can measure many aspects of the economy. While a trip to the grocery store will tell you that things are going crazy, here are some numbers a friend emailed me that make the point even more: The country is headed in the wrong direction.


January 2009

January 2011

% chg

Source

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

$1.83

$3.44

84%

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

2,779,000

2,840,000

2.2%

3

Real median household income

$50,112

$49,777

-0.7%

4</ div>

Number of food stamp recipients

31,983,716

43,200,878

35.1%

5

Number of</ span> unemployment benefit recipients

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

13.2%

14.3%

8.3%

4

People in poverty in U.S.

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

29.9

23.5

-21.4%

11

Failed banks

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

1,575.1

1,865.7

18.4%

13

U.S.. Money supply, M2, in billions

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 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

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