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After 2 Years-- many changes

Wow! This is change you can believe in!

After two years of Obama...Here's your change! But No Hope!

	January 2009	TODAY	*% chg*	^Source
Avg.. Retail price/gallon gas in U.S.	$1.83	$3.704	79.6%	¹
Crude oil, European Brent (barrel)	$43.48	$105.02	147.7%	²
Crude oil, West TX Inter. (barrel)	$38..74	$104.78	155.9%	²
Gold: London (per troy oz.)5	$853.25	$1,469.50	70.5%	²
Corn, No.2 yellow, Central IL	$3.56	$7.33	88.1%	²
Soybeans, No. 1 yellow, IL	$9.66	$13.75	42.3%	²
Sugar, cane, raw, world, lb. Fob	$13..37	$41.39	184.7%	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, ex. Military (curr = 12/10 prelim)	2,779,000	2,940,000	2.9%	³
Real median household income (2008 v 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	2,600,000	6,400,000	146.2%	³
Poverty rate, individuals (2008 v 2009)	13.2%	14.3%	8.3%	⁴
People in poverty in U.S. (2008 v 2009)	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 (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 prelim)	1,575.1	1,865.7	18.4%	¹³
U.S.. Money supply, M2, in billions (curr = 12/10 prelim)	8,310.9	8,852.3	6.5%	¹³
National debt, in trillions	$10..627	$14..052	32.2%	¹⁴

Just take this last item: In the last two years we have accumulated national debt at a rate more than 27 times as fast as during the rest of our entire nation's history.

Metaphorically speaking, if you are driving in the right lane doing 65 MPH and a car rockets past you in the left lane, 27 times faster, it would be doing 7,555 MPH!

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;