Since he has taken over, my 401K has increased significantly, my taxes have decreased significantly, and my salary has increased. If this is what the next four years bring, bring it on. And attempting to make your point with the leader of a completely different company is quite lame. It would be as ignorant as me trying to compare Bud Selig with David Stern.
Same here, Stan. In my financial life, most everything has either improved or stabilized since 2009. 2008-09 was damn scary and painful. Things have generally gotten better. The big one for me was being able to refi my mortgage a couple of weeks ago down to 3%! The savings from just doing that represents a car payment... or chucking that much more into savings. For those who have been able to refinance over the past year or so, that has really cut monthly household expenses. For me, it was roughly a 33% drop in long term interest costs and that was shockingly good. After getting the appraisal report back, I was surprised to learn that my house's value is beginning to tick up again. Also, the industry sector that I work in has greatly stabilized since 2009-10. My stock portfolio is doing great. The banks I deal with are finally beginning to loosen up (just a little) on lending to small businesses. So I really can't complain these days. The only thing that could make it better is if I woke up and Salma Hayek was walking naked out of my bathroom with a naughty smile on her lips. But unless I start dropping acid, I don't think I'll be seeing that anytime soon.
Yeah, all that^^^ is anecdotal. But hard economic data points to a growing, though sluggish, economy in the U.S. GDP is going in the right direction, as is unemployment. Georges doesn't live here and he (obviously) ignores actual economic data. Economic data shows that consumer sentiment is improving.
Existing-home sales and builder confidence are rising. The housing market recovery showed signs it is continuing to strengthen as sales of existing homes increased 2.1% in October from the previous month and a measure of home-builder confidence jumped in November to its highest level since 2006.
The fact that most things are continuing to improve doesn't mean that I think everything is rosy - clearly it's not. But what I see and read tells me that, short of Congress working long & hard to ruin the country, we should be in much better shape by 2016 than we are now. In fact, I'll make a prediction: I expect nominal GDP to top $16.5 trillion by the end of fiscal 2016. Unlike a certain other person here who makes predictions, mine is based off of something more substantial than wishful thinking or fantasies developed while staring at the poster of Sarah P@lin hanging over his bed.
If/when things get better, sure, Obama will get much of the credit. But the real credit has to go to the people who will
always believe in the future of this republic,
no matter who the President is or which party is in power. The people who wish for the nation's failure (based on whether or not their guy/gal is in power) are traitors and are actually a big part of the problem.
