United States Heading towards a Depression?

That's funny.

I read all the frames of Julia's life.

Here's one, when she reaches age 65 >

"...Under President Obama: Julia is awarded a special Social Security bonus after her son Zachary makes the ultimate sacrifice in the Great Patriotic Debt War with Eastasia..."

"...Mitt Romney: there has never been a "Mitt Romney" or a "Paul Ryan." These are lies propagated by the forces of reaction..."

LOL. That blogger is very creative.

 

Unemployment for April 2012 was 8.1%. This is the slowest recovery since the Great Depression. At this rate the economy won't recover until 2014.

 

Unemployment is going down. Gas prices too...

 

Credit where credit is due. A depressed economy is certainly one way of dealing with high gas prices.


I paid $4.29 for the bargain basement unleaded to fill up today. Still a pretty impressive price considering the flailing economy.

 

Here's a map of the most expensive areas. Hopefully, gas prices in your area will go down soon.

 

Woiw! Just looking at the color difference by setting foot outside the border of the People's Republik of California. Its damn near $.50 a gallon, unless you are going north into liberal Oregon, in which case its only ~$.20 a gallon cheaper. Another reason I am so proud we re-elected governor Gerry "Moonbeam" Brown.

On the bright side for Obama, France elected a socialist to the office of the president, causing worldwide markets to tumble. Oil is down $2.50 cents today. Should I be cheering, or crying?

 

If you know history like I think you know history... probably crying. I have learned that (usually) a socialist is lying through their teeth. They say they care about the poor, but how many times is it a ruse for a power grab?

 

Rebecca, an unemployment rate that is a staggering 8.1% is nothing to brag about, especially when real unemployment is stuck at 16%.

Best you can say is, while last year things really really sucked, this year things really suck. Or is it your position of "Unemployment is going down" your way of saying we should "settle for less"???

Really, with Obama's record of what he has accomplished in Washington, the bills he's signed (ex: Patriot Act, signing statements), his support for waterboarding, his opposition to gay marriage ("I believe marriage is defined as between a man and a woman") and what he has NOT done (gone after Wall Street criminals), except for Fast a Furious a flaming liberal would stereotype his record as a Conservative Extremist. Not as conservative as Bill Clinton, mind you, but Obama is certainly a friend to Big Business and an enemy of the working class.

Liberals that aren't silent on Obama's record are making sad excuses for him.

 

I found this article by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. It lists reasons why gas prices vary in different areas. One of the reasons is environmental programs. Liberals may tend to voice more concern about the environment. So, in that way, I can see the connection.

 

California has it's own gas blend requirements for smog. I'm pretty sure the gas you buy in Arizona is not the same.

 

Probably not. The article reinforces that >

Also, it looks like AZ taxes are a little lower.

 

And in what dimension of time and space do you live in?

 

The market has more of a correlation with oil prices than in reality these days. Speculators and those bidding on oil futures have a much more direct link than they used to. You don't even have to take possession of the oil that you buy. You can just bet the oil market like it's monopoly money. Supply and Demand are much less a factor in the cost of oil barrels these days. At least here in the U.S. where Opec doesn't have it's mafia style affect over but a small part of it.

 

What's interesting with regards to oil is to watch the price of crude DROP when the market drops. That eventually translates to lower prices at the pump usually within a few days or weeks.

Commodities are rarely if ever governed by true market forces like supply, demand and or competition.

 

I'm in the dimension of time and space that actually wishes the best for our country regardless of which President is in office.

Jeremy, here are the figures >

When Obama took office in Jan 09, the economy was in a disaster. Unemployment kept increasing over a year, and now is slowly starting to decline.


Source: http://data.bls.gov


If you want to go the route of blaming gas prices on the President, look at the 5 year chart for gas prices. In 5 years, they have never been as high as they were in the summer of 2008. I don't blame Bush for that. Gas prices fluctuate based on a variety of factors. And yes, they are currently going back down. But don't worry, I'm not giving Obama credit for that either.

 

Rebecca, when Obama took office in 2009 the price of a gallon of gas was $1.69/gal where I live. Now its more than twice that.

Source: I have receipts for gas I purchased Before Obama and During Obama.

Rebecca, when Obama took office the deficit was a paltry 159 billion (with a B) dollars, down from an all time high (due to 9/11) of over 550 Billion (with a B) dollars. It is now over 3 TRILLION (with a T) dollars and growing.

Rebecca, when Obama took office the national debt was at just shy of 6 Trillion dollars. It's now over 16 TRILLION dollars.

Source, US Dept of the Treasury.

Rebecca, 3 years ago things did not look good to many, but in retrospect, things were really pretty damned good compared to now.

Unemployment (since you mentioned it first) was around 4.1% under Bush. It's now more than double that today and growing. Keep in mind that the more people that leave the unemployment roles are not moving back into the workforce. They've just given up looking for work.

 

Jeremy, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Gas Buddy may be better sources for statistics on unemployment and gas prices, than your personal recollections of your area.

 

I run a business Rebecca, we have a fleet and we use gas, I have a very accurate grasp on what gas cost then and now.

Gas is currently twice what it was 3 years ago. That is an undeniable truth.

In the service industry you ALWAYS know what your costs are, ALWAYS.

What say you now to a dose of reality?

 

To be fair, I think the deficit is currently 1.5-1.6 Trillion dollars now, but yah its a huge jump. I read somewhere the federal government has grown by 40% under Obama while the private sector contracted. This is not short term stimulus, its new, long term permanent structural spending.

Every time I hear Obama make the case for higher taxes vs cuts, one only has to look at the federal budget as a percent of GDP. Traditionally, it has been around 18%, even when the highest income tax bracket was 70%. When Obama manages to shrink the federal budget from 25% of GDP to 18% of GDP, we can talk about raising taxes to get the tax base up the 3% from 15% to 18% of GDP.

Another great point. The labor force participation rate hasnt been this low since Jimmy Carter. There is a surprise.

 

>>>

Unemployment is going down. Gas prices too. It was a waste of time pulling up the statistics. As predicted, you simply disregard them. Take Obamanation's cue > he's now trying to steer the conversation in a direction you might actually be able to argue.