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Saturday, March 10, 2012

A look back on the Obama wasteland

There are a number of articles out in the last few days about how three years have now passed since the bottom of the stock market in March of 2009. These article compare all sorts of things to where they stood three years ago. It is pretty interesting to look at the numbers, since these give a pretty good view of the Obama economy. By March of 2009, essentially all of the drop from the recession was over, so the three years includes all of the bounce from coming out of the recession. Here are four key statistics.

In the last three years, real GDP has grown by 6.6%; that is not an annualized figure, it is the total growth over a three year period. There has never been a three year period after the end of a recession or depression in the USA with such a poor level of growth. Obama set the record.

In the last three years, the price of oil has gone up 126%. Once again, this is a record for a three year rise when there is no external shock to the world market. In other words, the Arab oil embargo in 1973 raised the world price of oil dramatically, but that was due to concerted political action by producers. In the last three years, we have basically seen market forces drive up the price. Increased demand and constricted supply have pushed oil prices to the point where we may soon see a recession unless the rise stops and a decline sets in.

Since March 2009, the total level of debt of the federal government has risen by 42%. This is again, a monument to Obama. If nothing is done soon, we will reach the status of Greece.

Lastly, since March 2009, the price of gold has rise by 85%. If you ever wanted to see a better example of a high level of fear of the collapse of the international monetary system, just look at the meteoric rise of gold. Sure, there are other reasons for the rise, but take away the fear that is included in the gold price, and the market would be no where near as high as it presently is. It is another testament to the economic inadequacy of Obama.

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