A new era of hope will be ushered in as we watch the next President of the United States, Barack Obama, be sworn into office on January 20, 2009.

As the economy plunges into depths that have not been seen since the Great Depression, our new President has a lot to shoulder in his first days of office.

Here is a brief glimpse as it stands today:

• Unemployment is at an all time high of 7.2% as of December 2008. What does that really mean? It means that according the United States Department of Labor, over 2.6 million people lost their jobs in 2008 and that is the highest number of jobs lost since 1945, when 2.75 million people lost their jobs.
• According the US Commerce Department, housing starts fell 2.7% in December 2008, the lowest since this type of data has been collected. That was back in 1959. What does that mean? It means that people are not buying new houses in record numbers any longer (surprise!) and so builders are not breaking ground on new projects. More jobs are being lost.
• The import and export business is backwards and ruining the American economy. The amount of jobs being exported out of the country (not people, only jobs and the money to pay for those jobs) and the amount of goods being imported into the country with no reciprocation is phenomenal and uncontrolled.
• The Foreclosure rate jumped a whopping 81% from 2007 and a record breaking 3 million homes are in foreclosure according to RealtyTrac. Banks repossessed more than 303,401 homes in December 2007 (where oh where is the stimulus money? Oh, I forgot…the banks are held to a lesser standard than we mere mortals hold and are not required to say!)
• The homeless rate is unknown. The US Census bureau has not released the current statistics. However, tent cities are popping up in record numbers around the United States.

This is a small glimpse of what our new President will be dealing with when he is inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States. However, for the first time, there is hope in the air and the American people can feel that hope. Smiles are lighting up the faces of those who had tears streaming down their faces a year ago.

Yes, our next President has a lot to shoulder, but he has broad shoulders after all. It took eight years to get where we are today, and so it will take longer than an overnight miracle to produce a brighter future. At least there is hope for the future, something that has been lost on the past administration and its policy makers.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 14th, 2009 at 8:12 pm and is filed under World Today. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.