Who Is The Smallest Government Spender Since Eisenhower? Barack Obama

It’s enough to make even the most ardent Obama cynic scratch his head in confusion.

Amidst all the cries of Barack Obama being the most prolific big government spender the nation has ever suffered, Marketwatch is reporting that our president has actually been tighter with a buck than any United States president since Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Who knew?

Check out the chart the chart below

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Healthcare First in Spending, Last in Relative Performance (Table)

I am wondering if many people understand that we spend twice as much on healthcare as most industrialized countries. At the same time, our world ranking in healthcare delivery is poor.

It might be interesting to note that the profits of healthcare insurance companies rose by more than 400 percent in the period 2000-2007.

During the same period, the number of people without healthcare insurance, and the cost of healthcare insurance was rising fast.

It also surprises me when I see people arguing on television that they prefer the status quo.



All information is taking from 2005 OECD data unless otherwise noted.
*2000, 2003-2005 World Health Organization Data. **2004 OECD data.
Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, World Health Organization
Analysis by PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Heath Research Institute

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Total Consumer Credit Outstanding Continues to Drop (Graph)

As you can see from the graph, Total Consumer Credit Outstanding Continues to Drop. This is an unusual pattern. After nine months down, we are now back to a level last seen during December, 2007.

If the trend continues at this pace, it will have a negative impact on GDP in the months ahead. This will certainly have an impact on future economic forecasts, consumption, and consumer spending.

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Bob DeMarco is a citizen journalist and twenty year Wall Street veteran. Bob has written more than 500 articles with more than 11,000 links to his work on the Internet. Content from All American Investor has been syndicated on Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, Pluck, Blog Critics, and a growing list of newspaper websites. Bob is actively seeking syndication and writing assignments.

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Consumers Spend Less, Boost Savings

Consumers spend less--not a good thing. Retail sales account for about two thirds of GDP. Consumers save more--a good thing. They won't like it in Washington because when consumers start saving it does not translate into demand. You will notice not a word about savings coming out of Washington. The reality, however, is that longer term savings can translate into investing--also a good thing. Too bad Washington is not paying more attention to people when dreaming up the next political solution to our still growing economic problems.

Personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income was 3.6% in December, the highest since 4.8% in May 2008. It was 2.8% in November.

Monday's income and spending data showed disposable personal income -- income after taxes -- fell by 0.2%, following a 0.3% decrease in November.

U.S. construction spending took its third tumble in a row during December as the housing slump wore on, the commercial sector fell, and government outlays dropped.

Total spending decreased by 1.4% at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.054 trillion compared to the prior month, the Commerce Department said Monday. Spending fell 1.2% in November; originally, November spending was seen 0.6% decline. October outlays dropped 0.7%.

Construction spending for 2008 dropped a record 5.1% to $1.079 billion from $1.137 billion during 2007.

Consumers Spend Less, Boost Savings

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