Incomplete

On the eve of the DNC, Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post notes:

Today we learned that U.S. manufacturing plunged to July 2009 levels and construction suffered its biggest drop in a year. Coupled with several weeks of increased first-time jobless claims, we can expect a poor jobs report on Friday.

So does President Obama and his party spend the week telling us things are better? Surely they would set themselves up for a bashing — unless the job numbers surprise us.

Does he say the economy would have been worse without him? Well, the Bush and Reagan recoveries were much stronger than whatever is we are experiencing. (Calling it a recovery flies in the face of voters’ deeply held conviction that we are still in a recession).

On the eve of the DNC, Politico reports that

Prices at the pump reached a national average of $3.83 Monday, according to AAA, setting a record high for a Labor Day.

On the eve of the DNC, USA Today notes:

Interest rates on bonds, CDs and money market accounts — staples of the retirement crowd's portfolio — are at historic lows. (I'm always shocked to see what banks are touting. Really? 0.35% — that is, 35/100 of a percent — on a money market? 0.90% on a CD? Yep.) Stocks are nothing to write home about, still well below their highs of five years ago. As for those real estate investments? Forget about it.

The squeeze [on middle class seniors] is real. Some years ago, when earning say 5% on your money was realistic, a $360,000 portfolio of CDs would produce $18,000 a year in interest — that's $1500 a month. Couple that with an unexceptional Social Security payment of about the same amount, and that's $36,000 a year, $3,000 a month. Nothing fancy, but enough to get by.

Now change that 5% to 0.9% and you're earning $3,240 per year, or about $270 a month. Add that to $1,500 a month in Social Security and you've got $1,770 a month to live on; just $21,240 a year. That's a brutal 41% cut in income. And it is why many senior citizens around the country are being forced to draw down savings to make ends meet.

On the even of the DNC, The Wall Street Journal reports:

In 2010 alone, government at all levels oversaw a transfer of over $2.2 trillion in money, goods and services. The burden of these entitlements came to slightly more than $7,200 for every person in America. Scaled against a notional family of four, the average entitlements burden for that year alone approached $29,000.

About one year before the DNC, USA Today reported:

The government paid a record $268 billion in pension and health benefits last year to 10 million former civil servants, military personnel and their dependents, about $100 billion more than was paid a decade earlier after adjusting for inflation. And $7 billion more was deposited into tax-deferred accounts of current workers.

In addition, the federal government last year made more than a half-trillion dollars in future commitments, valued in 2010 dollars that will cost far more to pay in coming decades. The government paid a record $268 billion in pension and health benefits last year to 10 million former civil servants, military personnel and their dependents, about $100 billion more than was paid a decade earlier after adjusting for inflation. And $7 billion more was deposited into tax-deferred accounts of current workers.

The President has not recommended any action or legislation to address this issue.

On the eve of the DNC, unemployment remains steady at 8.3 percent.

On the eve of the DNC, the median annual income in the United States has dropped by about $3,000 over the President's 40-plus months in office.

On the eve of the DNC, Bloomberg reports:

Food-stamp use reached a record 46.7 million people in June, the government said, as Democrats prepare to nominate President Barack Obama for a second term with the economy as a chief issue in the campaign.

Participation was up 0.4 percent from May and 3.3 percent higher than a year earlier and has remained greater than 46 million all year as the unemployment rate stayed higher than 8 percent.

On the eve of the DNC, the Bureau of Economic Analysis stated that GDP is an anemic 1.7 percent, down from a slightly less anemic 2.0 percent in the first quarter.

On the eve of the DNC, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that

The price index for gross domestic purchases, which measures prices paid by U.S. residents, increased 0.8 percent in the second quarter, 0.1 percentage point more than in the advance estimate; this index increased 2.5 percent in the first quarter. Excluding food and energy prices, the price index for gross domestic purchases increased 1.4 percent in the second quarter, compared with an increase of 2.4 percent in the first.

Inflation is beginning to warm up (as it had to, given that on Obama's watch, the Fed is printing money with abandon).

On the first day of the DNC, federal debt topped 16,000 billion dollars! And with Barack Obama's current budget "plan," federal debt will increase to well over 20,000 billion dollars by 2016!

On the second day of the DNC, CNBC reports:

The United States has slipped further down a global ranking of the world's most competitive economies, according to a World Economic Forum (WEF) survey released on Wednesday.

The world's largest economy, which was placed 5th last year, fell two positions to the 7th spot - marking its fourth year of decline.

A lack of macroeconomic stability, the business community’s continued mistrust of the government and concerns over its fiscal health were some of the reasons for the downgrade, according to the annual survey.

On the eve of the DNC, President Obama, when asked what grade he deserved on the economy, responded, “an incomplete.”

As an ex-professor, it’s my opinion that he’s marking on a really, really steep curve.