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Oct 29 / thomas.krafft

A few references…

This post is for the benefit of visual-learners like myself, who sometimes prefer a nice info-graphic or chart to help understand current trends, issues being debated by our representation or, as Thomas Jefferson might say, other matters of “action” for which data can often yield far more truth than words uttered by people who are more interested in being re-elected than in serving the republic.

On one side, for example, you’ve been hearing that President Obama is responsible for all our problems. The economy is all his fault, he not only caused but should also have completely solved the mortgage crisis by now, business is suffering because he wants to raise taxes on 5% of the population, and he’s generally to blame for anything else that bothers you too.

Just to provide you some context, and without trying to convince anyone they’re wrong, just look at a few references points I’ve embedded below – public data showing just a few of the actual trends in many of the topics that the politicians and talk-show hosts seem to ignore while trying to get you all emotional.

Charts:
  1. Existing home sales
  2. Home prices
  3. Non-farm payroll losses (unemployment)
  4. The stock market (screen from Google Finance)
Legend:
  • 2008 = George W. Bush was our president
  • 2009 = Barack Obama became president.

 

Conclusion:

All the lines above were going down (which is bad) under Bush, and started almost immediately climbing back up (which is good) under Obama. That means, at least on these issues, Bush’s leadership, administration, execution of his sworn duties, cabinet choices and the legislation he encouraged, supported and ultimately signed into law simply did not have good results. Contrast this with Obama’s first (less than 1) year. The new president, duly elected by a majority of the populace and electoral college in a fair a peaceful process some of us educated elites like to call “democracy”, seems to have led us fairly well.

I look at statistical and analytic data for a living, evaluating trends to see what’s working and what isn’t. The above charts require virtually no explanation. Although not representing the entire landscape of economic activity in the US, these are still adequate to proving at-a-glance that perhaps some of the talking-heads currently waxing ad nauseum against President Obama, or advocating his failure (and by extension, our failure as a nation), don’t appear to be as informed as you’ve been in less than one minute, with just four small charts of data.

It’s a lot easier to understand an issue when there’s less emotional vile being tossed about – yes? (granted, I am feeling a bit sarcastic tonight, so do excuse the excessive quotes and lengthy sentences please 🙂

And so you have just a small introduction and example of the strange and subversive things I hope “First Convention” will promote, including logic, reason and facts (or, at least solidly supported theories) – and all with virtually no sound-byte marketing slogans designed only to solicit an emotional response that causes most people to ignore the things I just mentioned.

Well, goodnight world. I’ll be back in a few days. Do please try and stay out of trouble while I’m gone. 🙂
Thomas

Filed under Opinion