Food stamp card makers. As of March, there were 14 million more people on food stamps than when Obama took office — a 45% increase. In just the last year, food stamp enrollment climbed 4%. Spending on food stamps, meanwhile, shot up 70%.
Economy: Ever since he uttered those famous six words about the private sector, President Obama has been running away from claiming that anything much in the economy is “doing fine.” He’s just not looking hard enough.
Yes, the economy is barely eking out growth, family incomes are down, unemployment is still over 8%, corporate profits have flatlined, the stock market is moving sideways and a bunch of major banks just had their credit ratings downsized.
But surely the president of Hope and Change can see silver linings in all these dark clouds. After all, there are many parts of the economy that are doing much better than fine under Obama’s careful ministrations.
Here’s just a sampling:
Pawnshops. In Florida, for example, the number of pawnshops has nearly doubled in the past five years, according to the Miami Herald. And stocks for the three publicly traded pawnshop companies are up handsomely. Cash America International stock has appreciated 121% and First Cash Financial Services is up 140%. That’s more than twice as good as the S&P 500 since Obama was sworn in.
Repo men. “The repo business has become a thriving boom industry,” according to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle. And that’s not just because the 99% are having a hard time paying bills. Even the rich are helping the repo business thrive. ABC’s “Today” noted a while back that “for yacht repo men, business is booming.”
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