Sunday, April 8, 2012

I dislike spam, it makes me angry and look up things.

So, have you gotten this?

After two years of Obama ---here's your change! (2011 version) or this one...(2012 version)?

The first thing to note....the only differences between 2011 and 2012 is the retail gas price.  Not one other stat has been touched/updated.

So, just with average retail price per gallon....if one does not remember, in 2008 it hit an all time high. 

Looking from the last term that Bush was in office until now, this is what that looks like:
src - gasbuddy.com/gb_retail_price_chart.aspx

The bump in gas prices for 2008 was due to a bunch of reasons; from 2004 demand pressure, Katrina, Middle East shananagians, low supplies, and the worst - speculators.  Hrmmm...Market price correction? 

Let's take a look Crude Oil -
this looks familiar - http://quotes.post1.org/historical-crude-oil-price-chart/


Average price  rose approx 82% from 04-08, from 09 to 11 it rose 62% - final number being $91 dollars a barrel in 2008 to $87 dollars a barrel in 2011.  Currently it's $103 as of  this post.

Corn Prices:

http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/CN/M


Average per year put it at $4.20 in 2008 and $6.25 in 2011.  Food prices in general are on the rise.....Forbes does a good job in explaining it.

Impacts from weather and natural disasters will ebb and flow over time and population growth will continue.  But policy changes like ending ethanol subsidies, eliminating or moderating other crop subsidies, moderating regulation on herbicide use, eliminating food tariffs/taxes, allowing more water use for agriculture, etc. all could help lower food costs.  Finally, actions to lower oil prices could help food inflation.
One thing has changed....the ethanol subsides have ended (that had been in place for 60 years).  And yet the price of corn is still very high.

Up next...Soybeans...


http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/SB/M

....things are looking familiar right?  Ok, let's wrap this up a little quicker....


http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/

Things have been on a steady rise since 2003, with a peak in 2007/08 - a market correction, then ...well, I'm not that good of an economist to say.  It looks like things are attempting to slow/level in late 2011, but who the heck can be sure.

Unemployment:



Unemployement started rising while Bush was still in office, ending at 7.3% in Dec 2008.  currently...it rests at 8.3% down from a high of 10% in October 2009. 

Number of food stamp recipiants - From the U.S. Gov website....  

Totals from 2002 to 2011 are:


200219,09679.6718,256.202,380.8220,637.02
200321,25083.9421,404.282,412.0123,816.28
200423,81186.1624,618.892,480.1427,099.03
200525,62892.8928,567.882,504.2531,072.13
200626,54994.7530,187.352,715.7432,903.09
200726,31696.1830,373.272,817.2633,190.54
200828,223102.1934,608.403,031.6037,639.99
200933,490125.3150,359.923,275.3053,635.22
201040,302133.7964,704.453,604.2468,308.69
201144,709133.8571,812.233,862.1575,674.39


National Debt:




Huh, look there - wars are expensive. 



So, did this start with Obama?

Monday, May 30, 2011

Help my friend



Hi - anyone who's clicked on this link!  Thanks for coming to help.  My friend's mom passed away from ALS today.  She is in AZ, but needs to get to michigan asap.  I set this up to try and help her out.  Seems I can't send money to myself - but she already has 25 bucks from me.  If you just donate what you can....we can get her home this Thursday.  I'm also pledging to pay all the fees to transfer the money - so know that your entire donation will go to her.

I really appreciate it.