Some good news at the beginning of 2016

A news reporter once told me, "If 350 airplanes land at Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport, that is not news. On the other hand," he continued, "if one plane slips off the end of the runway, that is news." The point is that our news media is loaded with bad news and not too much good news to balance it. That is especially true in an election year, when those on the outside know they can't get elected by telling us how well everything is going.

Yes, we know we are living in a time of organized terrorism, when deranged gunmen shoot innocent people for no other reason than that they happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Well, here is some balance that, perhaps, has not been at the front of your mind. And one must go back several years to get a true perspective on what is happening, which is why I have traced our nation's economic and military news back seven years to compare with our situation today.

1. Unemployment: was 7.2 percent, now is 5 percent.

2. Gasoline: was $3.24 per gallon, now is $2.02 nationwide and $1.70 in South Carolina.

3. Foreign oil purchased: was 11 million barrels, now is 4.5 million.

4. National GDP growth: was -0.3 percent, now is +3.7 percent.

5. Stock market: was 10,355, now is 17,456.

6. Teen pregnancy: was 40.2 pregnancies per thousand, now is 26.5.

7. Military in war zones: was 140,000, now is 10,300.

8. U.S. military killed: was 1,016 in 2007, this year it is 57.

It does seem ironic that more people were killed in the Paris tragedy last month than in our military in a war zone over the past year.

So shall we give President Obama credit for the improvements in our economic situation? My answer is, "No." Presidents actually don't have much leverage when it comes to the economy. They can't tell businesses/industries how many people to hire or how many products to produce. When asked a question on such, President Jimmy Carter said, "Congress and the Federal Reserve have more control over the economy than the president." Rather, we should credit inventions and innovations in the oil industry and our economic recovery that has whittled down the annual deficit to the lowest it has been since 2007.

Considering what we are hearing in the political wars, any good news at all is worth celebrating. The improvement in our economic numbers should cause us all to pause here at the end of another year and be thankful for small favors.