Obama is taking stock before turning the country over to Trump. Although Trump portrayed the country as a hollowed out shell of itself in his campaign, the reality seems a bit different.
Even as we engage ISIS in the global war on terror, we have fewer U.S. troops fighting overseas than we have since 2003. Our military spending remains higher than all the other countries combined (including our allies). We are the only country in the world capable of projecting force globally.
We have again reduced the number of nuclear weapons that Russia and the U.S. point at each other to about 1,500 each. Six to ten each would be enough to end civilization as we know it. Nuclear proliferation has been limited to North Korea.
Official Unemployment (U3) has dropped again, now to 4.4%. U6 the more pessimistic measure of unemployment, underemployment and discouraged workers, fell to 9.0% The labor participation rate remained steady at 62.7% of persons over 16 years of age. Wages are climbing by 2.5% per year, outpacing inflation. Inflation remains low at 1.6% with low energy prices having an impact. Gasoline is still under $2 per gallon and electricity 10-13 cents per KWh.
Housing and equity markets are booming. The Dow topped 19,000 within days of Trump's election. NASDAQ is at 5,250 and the S&P is 2190. Nationwide the Case Shiller housing index is at 185 equaling its best ever. (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CSUSHPINSA).
Compare to Obama's election day in 2008.
Health care is accessible but getting expensive as everyone tries to game the system and the federal government sits immobile in gridlock, unable to make any adjustments to the 2010 healthcare law that they had to pass before they read it.. Premiums were up 3.4% on on health care insurance nationwide, but on the Obamacare exchanges premiums are up an average of 25% and competition is in decline as insurers drop out. The US pays about twice as much as a percentage of GDP for health care than do other developed nations.
Procedures and pharmaceuticals cost more in the US than elsewhere. Pharmaceutical manufacturers have been in the news too often for price gouging. With powerful lobbying controlling Congress they can, so they do.
We still have far too many people ensnared in the criminal justice system. With 2.2 million in prison, 4.7 million more on probation, parole or house arrest, and a total of 68 million with a criminal record, we are by far the most incarcerated nation on Earth. Police shootings may get the headlines, but mass incarceration is the real violence we commit against each other with all the resulting despair, poverty, and criminality.
As the heroin epidemic rages, there is progress in the rationalization of marijuana laws at the state level, and a growing recognition that all drug prohibition is not working. While marijuana is still a Schedule I controlled substance at the federal level, 45 states have seen fit to modify their laws. In most cases medical marijuana is legal and possession has been decriminalized or at least reduced to a misdemeanor. Eight states have made marijuana legal for recreational use and have begun licensing legal commercial production and distribution. Federal laws remain unchanged and the banking system is being used to make legal distribution more difficult and dangerous.
Merry Christmas America. Temperatures reached 80 degrees on 12/12 and 12/13.