The US Economy Report Card from factcheck.org

My go-to source for objective analysis is factcheck.org and they periodically publish a report card on how we're doing since Obama took office, the good along with the bad.

Summary

In our latest quarterly review of key statistical measures of Barack Obama’s presidency so far, we find:

• The economy has now added twice as many jobs since Obama took office than it did in his predecessor’s entire eight years in office.
• Stockholders have grown wealthier; the S&P 500 has gained 110 percent.
• But fewer Americans own their own homes. The rate of home ownership has dropped by 2.3 percentage points.
• However, fewer homeowners are now being forced out by foreclosures. Lenders initiated fewer foreclosure proceedings in June than at any time in the past seven-and-a-half years.
• Consumer prices have risen a modest 9.9 percent since Obama first took office, but wages have barely kept pace. Real weekly earnings rose just 0.1 percent.
• The federal debt declined a bit recently due to the tax-season surge in payments to the Treasury. But the debt is still up nearly 90 percent, and on a path to double.
• While states and cities laid off millions of their workers to make ends meet, the Obama administration continued to hire. The federal workforce is nearly 5 percent larger now, and has grown faster than the U.S. population.
• Obama has now traveled to 38 countries, visiting some more than once. Bush visited 75.
• The president is far short of meeting his goal of doubling U.S. exports. They have risen 31 percent since he took office, and only 2 percent in the most recent 12 months.
• Domestic oil production continues to soar, up 46 percent. Oil imports have plunged by 38 percent. But the U.S. still depends on foreign sources for more than a third of what it consumes.
• Wind and solar power have increased 176 percent. But those sources still make up just 3.8 percent of U.S. electric generation. Coal still accounts for the biggest share: nearly 39 percent.