So Oblama promised us change? We got it...

President Obama promised change.

According to this data,  the hope that millions had in President Obama was for naught. It really is stunning how bad things have gotten, and worse, conditions will continue to deteriorate unless the magic money printing presses of the Federal Reserve and continued spending by Congress somehow manage to turn it all around. Given that we’ve spent trillions already, engaged in destructive monetary policy, and learned absolutely nothing, we suspect the trends below will continue:

	January 2009	TODAY	% chg	Source
Avg. retail price/gallon gas in U.S. (regular conventional)	$1.83	$3.104	69.6%	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
Natural gas, Henry Hub, $ per MMbtu	$4.85	$4.48	-7.6%	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
Producer Price Index:  all commodities	171.0	189.9	11.1%	3
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. uniformed military (curr = 12/10 prelim)	2,779,000	2,840,000	2.2%	3
Real median household income (2008 vs 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,  in millions	2.6	6.4	146.2%	3
Poverty rate, individuals (2008 vs 2009)	13.2%	14.3%	8.3%	4
People in poverty in U.S.,  in millions  (2008 vs 2009)	39.8	43.6	9.5%	4
House price index (current = Q3 2010)	198.7	192.7	-3.0%	7
S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index: 20 city composite (curr = 10/10)	146.4	145.3	-0.8%	8
Number of properties subject of foreclosurefilings,  in millions	2.82	2.87	1.7%	9
U.S. rank in Economic Freedom World Rankings	5	9	n/a	10
Consumer Confidence Index (curr = 12/10)	37.7	52.5	39.3%	11
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 preliminary)	1,575.1	1,865.7	18.4%	13
U.S. money supply, M2,  in billions  (curr = 12/10 preliminary)	8,310.9	8,852.3	6.5%	13
National debt,  in trillions	$10.627	$14.052	32.2%	14