Is it Jimmy Carter All Over Again?

By Bill Wilson
It feels like we've been here before.
The malaise-filled economic train wreck of the Carter years has risen zombie-like from the ash heap of history to inflict its special brand of pain and suffering.

On May 6, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that unemployment rose from 8.8 percent to 9 percent in April. That includes a 205,000 increase in joblessness in the household survey.

Coupled with slowing growth, increasing inflation, and a continued recession in housing, not to mention the spiraling $14.333 trillion national debt, the economic storm clouds emerging on the horizon for 2012 are dark indeed.
Specifically, growth has slowed down to 1.8 percent in the first quarter, and inflation is up over the past year, with producer prices up 5.8 percent and consumer prices up 2.7 percent. Making matters worse, home prices are again on the decline as foreclosures rose 6.53 percent in March.

Fiscally, when Obama’s first budget was enacted, the national debt stood at $11.909 trillion, and it has already increased by $2.4 trillion. By November 2012, the gross debt will be over $16.627 trillion according to the Office of Management and Budget, meaning he will have been directly responsible for a gargantuan $4.718 trillion increase. That’s a 39 percent run-up in just four years!
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