Collins Report

By Kevin “Coach” Collins

Jimmy Carter had his Misery Index (MI) which helped end his presidency. Here’s Barack Obama’s equivalent: the BOMI (Barack Obama Misery Index). It measures how much misery Obama is causing us:

The BOMI includes measurements of:

1) Unemployment

2) The pump price of a gallon of gasoline

3) The price of an ounce of gold

4) Home foreclosures

5) The Expectation Index

6) Food Stamp usage

To establish a baseline and give BOMI a starting point of ZERO, each category’s weight was set at zero at the beginning of Obama’s administration. The “then and now” comparison using factor analysis for each category computes to Obama’s BOMI number.

Citation footnotes follow the text.

With negative numbers being the ideal, Obama’s BOMI currently stands at: +13.22.

1) Unemployment points

Obama’s first unemployment number was 7.6% in February meaning 7.6% is Zero making today’s 10% a + 2.4 point increase. Add + 2.4 points.

2) Gasoline Points

In January the average price of gasoline at the pump was $1.85 a gallon today it’s $2.65 meaning per gallon an increase factor of 1.43. Add +1.43 points

3) Gold points

Price of Gold January 23 $895.30 an ounce: Price on December 3 $1221.50. Gold increased by factor of 1.36. Add +1.36 points

4) Home foreclosures points

In February there were 121,756 foreclosures. In September (latest data) 87,821 foreclosures occurred. The decrease is -1.38. Add – 1.38 points

5) The Expectations Index

The Expectations Index measures the levels of optimism surveyed families have. It was 27.5 in February it’s currently 21.9. Add+ 5.6 points.

6) Food Stamp usage

January U.S. Population: 305 Million, with 32.2 million Americans on Food Stamps for a total of 10.55% enrolled.

November population: 308 million with 35 million Food Stamp enrollees equaling 11.6% Add +1.05 points: Grand Total +13.22

Sources:

Unemployment

http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2009/feb/wk2/art02.htm

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Nov-jobless-rate-falls-to-10-apf-4164274048.html?x=0&.v=10

Gasoline

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/2009/01/gas-prices-2.html

http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/22/news/economy/dberg_gas_prices/

Gold

http://www.kitco.com/

http://goldprice.org/silver-and-gold-prices/2009_01_01_archive.html

Home foreclosure

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-195310225.html

http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/15/real_estate/foreclosure_crisis_deepens/

Expectations Index points

http://www.conference-board.org/utilities/pressDetail.cfm?press_id=3587

http://www.ipsos-na.com/news/pressrelease.cfm?id=4585

Food Stamps

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/us/29foodstamps.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.frac.org/html/news/fsp/2009.01_FSP.htm

http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/2008/12/31/us-population-2009-305-million-and-counting.html

What did you do to defend American freedoms today?

This day in history December 7

1941: The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor Hawaii bring about a state of war between the United States and the Axis powers of Japan Germany and Italy and America’s entry into World War II. The sneak attack on a sleepy Sunday morning killed 1235 Servicemen 68 civilians and wounded another 1178 innocent people. The worst single catastrophic explosion took the lives of 1104 men aboard the USS Arizona as the result of a direct hit by a 1760 pound bomb which penetrated the ship’s forward magazine. The war dragged on until the Germans were defeated on May 8 1945 and the Japanese still reeling from the destruction of two of their cities with atomic bombs surrendered on September 2 1945.

Comments on this or any other Collins Report essay can be sent to kcoachc “at” gmail.com