Ben, a wonderful article full of hard facts – except, well, except you couldn't help sneaking-in at least 1 journalistic piece of hype, after all, you ARE a journalist, aren't you?
"Gas prices have almost doubled: Gas prices have climbed from the national average of $1.78 a gallon in January 2009 to the current average of $3.33. Several times the average price of gas has neared $4 during President Obama's first term."
My, my, this is embarrassing — hasn't anyone told you that energy prices are set GLOBALLY, and have nothing to do with who is, or isn't, a president of what country?
But hey, you will attract a lot of sympathy with this, most American citizen actually believe that.
"congratulations" – being sarcastic. How low can you stoop…..
Was it Churchill, who quipped "damn government, my cigar is not burning right again…" to satirise the blinkered attitudes of populace?

What happens when you are overdrawn on your credit card? Do you stop spending and pay it off as you can afford it or do you call the credit card company and ask for a higher limit on it? It seems that this scenero is what is taking shape in Washington. The whitehouse has overspent itself (for various reasons) and now are badgering the house and congress to allow it to keep on spending with no credit limit. Folks some day, some how, some one must pay for all of this and guess who is lerft holding the bag? If the graphs are even half true here, this economical mess was started way back in the 80's and continued to the present day and looks like into the future. The path is as such ( first credit card companys, then banks and lending instutions and finally countrys) are forced to forclose on unpaid payments. Nuff Said

We all know about the "Evil Democrats" and their evil design to destroy capitalism and liberty! Why is it
that Republicans have sat silently by and allowed it to happen? Here's how & why.

The Republican Party often attacks and blames Democrats for supporting unions that have contributed to the economic mess we are now experiencing, but true conservatives know better. Republicans are every bit as guilty as Democrats for supporting union expansion into government. For example, The Teamsters broke with traditional support for Democratic nominees and the AFL-CIO when Nixon accepted the Teamster's offer from imprisoned union president James "Jimmy" Hoffa to use their infrastructure and chain of command to organize his reelection campaign. As well as deploy their muscle aka; union thugs and striker teams, to put down antiwar protesters. They even roughed-up Abbie Hoffman at Nixon's request.

Hoffa had been convicted of jury tampering, attempted bribery and fraud in 1964, and began serving his 13 years sentence in 1967. He wanted a Presidential pardon and release from prison. However, Nixon enjoyed the working relationship that developed with Frank Edward Fitsimmons, who Hoffa had appointed, acting president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1967 to 1971. So Nixon blocked Hoffa from union activities until 1980 as part of the pardon agreement, and Fitsimmons became the Teamsters' president from 1971 to 1981.

Nixon and Fitsimmons soon discovered that they both could expand their power and control by using both their offices to influence changes that would benefit each other. Fitsimmons got to expand union membership and dues collections into new areas like law enforcement and other critical government positions that were considered too sensitive to allow union activities that could compromise the public's interests and the people's trust in government. While Nixon could exorcise more command and control over the departments and agencies under expanding union control. Thus he could avoid publicly requesting the National Guard to put down protesters every time a problem arose and circumvent the US constitution.

Nixon then began expanding the various Departments of Law Enforcement turned over to union control. In a special message to Congress, On July 14, 1969 President Nixon identified drug abuse as "a serious national threat." Citing a dramatic jump in drug-related juvenile arrests and street crime between 1960 and 1967, Nixon called for a national anti-drug policy at the state and federal level before officially declaring a
"War on Drugs" in June 1971. Then he created the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to coordinate the efforts of all other agencies in July 1973.

The working relationship that the Teamsters Union and the Republican Party had didn't end with Nixon's
subsequent impeachment from office. In 1980, Ronald Reagan forged a close political relationship with Jackie Presser. Presser would later become president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1983 until his death in 1988. He was closely connected to organized crime, and became president of the Teamsters based on the approval and support of the Cleveland Mafia.

During Reagan's 1980 campaign for president, Presser served as one of Reagan's hosts at a private luncheon for Teamsters and other union leaders and escorted Reagan to private meetings with Teamster officials. Reagan was highly regarded by union leaders because he had served as union president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1947-1952 and 1959-1960. He also served as a key negotiator through eventful years that were marked by labor-management disputes, such as the Taft-Hartley Act, House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) hearings and the Hollywood blacklist era.

The Teamsters endorsement of Reagan in 1980, created such a furor within the American labor movement that when the second Reagan endorsement came in 1984, Vice President George H. W. Bush accepted the endorsement in person. The Teamster endorsement was the only large labor union endorsement Reagan received. In gratitude, Reagan named Presser to the second Reagan transition team as a labor advisor.

The media soon reported that Presser was reputed to have links to organized crime and financial malfeasance. Reagan and his advisors claimed to have been unaware of the accusations, and Presser denied having any ties to organized crime. New Jersey State Police witnesses testified that Presser was the primary contact for the DeCavalcante crime family of New Jersey and the Patriarca crime family of Boston whenever crime figures needed loans from Teamster pension funds.

When PATCO, the tiny union of federal air traffic controllers with only about 25,000 members that also endorsed Reagan in 1980, went on strike in the summer of 1981, violating a federal law prohibiting government unions from striking. Reagan used the opportunity to give himself the appearance of being tough on unions, declaring the situation an emergency as described in the 1947 Taft Hartley Act. He said that if the air traffic controllers "do not report for work within 48 hours, they have forfeited their jobs and will be terminated." They did not return and on August 5, Reagan fired all 11,345 air traffic controllers who had ignored his order, and used supervisors and military controllers to handle the nation's commercial air traffic until new controllers could be hired and trained. And guess what, as these new hires were subsequently absorbed into the union, PATCO was soon at full strength again!

Reagan and Presser didn't let the PATCO affair stop them from expanding union control, infact they both knew it was all just a means to an end. On 27 October 1986, Reagan signed a drug enforcement bill that budgeted $1.7 billion to fund the War on Drugs and specified a mandatory minimum penalty for drug offenses. By so doing, he expanded law enforcement and correctional departments and their corresponding unions exponentially. It also expanded the Department of Justice (DOJ) and added another 200,000 workers to federal payrolls. Making it just another great financial burden for Americans. The Teamsters anticipating the new law had already positioned themselves so they would benefit the most among all public sector unions when it passed.

The amount spent to fund the "War on drugs now exceeds $40 billion annually and still continues to grow, thus the ground work had already been layed when the 911 attacks occurred on Sept. 11, 2001. The process was completed when the Homeland Security Act, Border Security Act, and both Patriot Acts had passed through both Republican controlled houses of congress and were signed into law by Republican President George W. Bush which transformed the US into an American police state.

Therefore, it's already too late, you fell for it folks; both parties, Democrats and Republicans, tricked you into funding the very government agencies that would one day enslave you, "government police unions." We can no longer claim liberty or freedom. The only thing left for them to do is take our guns away! Once they've accomplished that, it is just a matter of time till we transform into the fascist dictatorship they envision for us!

They will not take our guns away all at once but, neighborhood by neighborhood, street by street, one city or county at a time, until all the guns are gone. Nixon deinstitutionalized mental patients and since then the "nuts" have been shooting up the place. Now the government has come up with the solution to fix the problem that, "once again they themselves created." How convenient it is for them, to take our right to own fire arms away, than it is to "lock up" or "terminate" the violent and/or insane offenders.

Ken, your Keynesian economic education is draped all over this one. You can blame Democrats and their economic policies for the situation, but blaming Obama is just intellectually dishonest. The way macroeconomics work, the only way for anyone to bring such a precipitous turn of events is to blockade ports and factories. Obviously, that's not what happened. The camel's back was already broken before Obama came into the picture, so one couldn't even say that something he did provided the last straw. This is very good example of trying to use stats and graphics to to lie.

The truth is that the economic policies of decades past finally came to a head in 2007 and the dominoes were still falling through 2008 while Obama was still campaigning for office.

Obama is still continuing the same bad policies, but what's the alternative in this political environment? Romney or any other Republican would have continued the same failing Keynesian principles with some cosmetic and rhetorical differences. The results would be the same, just like they have been under both Republican and Democratic administrations of the past. I suspect that it might be worse under a Republican, because, in the name of supporting business, they would have privatized everything that's still has any value and left the rest of the citizens utterly dispossessed.

Booms and busts are inevitable in any fiat currency economy – no other scapegoats needed!