A Year in Review (Note Chart at Bottom)

(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.