(This was just too perfect to pass up! Photo from thecoli.com)
Happy
Anniversary! We will be celebrating this
adminstration’s first birthday by taking
a few days off…
As discussed one
year ago, data should be kept and used as a tool. Here are the same variables I used in the first iteration of this thread.* Last year's numbers are in parentheses. Trump's improvements are highlighted in red. As per last year, economic data are from www.tradingeconomics.com.
Presidential
Approval Rating: 40.1% (51.7%) **
U.S. News Ranking (“Best
Countries”): 7 (4)
U.S. News Education
Ranking (“Best
Countries for Education”): 7 (3)
Inflation Rate: 2.1% (2.1%)
Unemployment
Rate: 4.1% (4.7%)
Actual GDP Growth:
3.2% (2.94%)
Federal Budget
Deficit: $666,000,000,000 ($587,000,000,000)
Trade Deficit:
$50,497,000,000 ($45,240,000,000)
Americans
without Health Insurance: 12.12% (9%)
Gasoline at Nacogdoches Wal-Mart: $2.69
($2.039)
Gallon of Milk at Nacogdoches Kroger: $2.39
($2.49)
Unauthorized
Immigrants Living in USA: 11,009,000 (11,000,000)
Philippines: LOVEFEST. (Strained Relations—not even sure how to
classify this one)
Syria: Known
Failure (Failure: cannot find a metric
at all!) +
U.S. Soldiers in
Combat Zones: Pending (13,300
& 5,524 listed as “unknown/classified” was the best I could find on this.)
+
* I am recovering from surgery, and some of
these links may mis-direct you. Sorry!
** From realclearpolitics.com. Of course, this
number will likely drop in the coming week.
+ Please read the following paragraphs:
These last two items are very difficult to determine. Military.com carries the Dept. of Defense message: “The long-standing official number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, or Force Management Level, has been 8,448, but Marine Lt. Gen. Frank McKenzie said for the first time that the actual number in Afghanistan is about 11,000.” Comparison may be difficult.
On the other hand, the Buzzfeed article on Syria states, “Former military officials and experts say 2017 also showed a worrisome trend toward less transparency about how and where US troops are killed.” I find it very difficult to believe things could get less transparent than they were a year ago.
One Indicator You Should Watch Closely
(mediocre article here)
Chart from seekingalpha.com.
