Gas prices drop to around $2 per gallon
Unemployment rate falls to the high fives.
Majority of US school children living in poverty
If you listen to the media, the first two were because Barack Obama is president. The third is because eevviill Republican politicians are sucking the education system dry.
The first isn’t because of market forces overcoming obstacles set in front of them because of the Executive and Legislative branches. Nope. The Messiah.
The second isn’t because the labor market participation rate is smaller now than durign the last years of the Carter Administration. Nope. It was Obama’s golf swing.
And the third isn’t a combination of the first two along with multiple other forces causing the economy to get bogged down. It’s just greedy politicians from THAT party.
I can see for myself the first is true. I strongly suspect the second is fudged to appear lower than it really is. I absolutely don’t believe the third, which for me raises the question: What is the definition of poverty being used in oder to make that claim?
The first is because the Saudis are flooding the market. At first we cheered since this was making the expensive oil out of Russia and Venezuela cost-ineffective, and thus bad for their economies. However, it’s also starting to hurt shale oil production -also cost-ineffective- here in Texas and other pro-fracking states. They’re already talking about wells being shut down. I’ve no idea how this will affect the economy, but I have this feeling we’ll better see the ripples closer to the 2016 presidential election. Obama obviously benefitted politically from the 2008 recession which happened mere months before the election, and though I had to dip a toe into the muddy waters of conspiracy theory territory, part of me wonders if the crash was manipulated for his benefit. And that same part of me wonders if the opening of Saudi’s spigots against high-cost oil is the first steps in manipulating markets for 2016.
And yes, the unemployment numbers are fudged to make that wonderful 5% unemployment. If you’re unemployed and not looking for work, you’re not counted. If you’re part-time looking for better paying work because you can’t live off your part time wages, you’re not counted. Etc.
And regarding the third point, a snippet from the posted article -“The lunch program is a rough proxy for poverty…”- really drives it home that the 5% unemployment figure isn’t as great as it’s cracked up to be.
If it hadn’t been for Obama, the economic turn around, such as it is, would have happened 4 years ago…
Recessions are supposed to last 18 months, not 6 years.