Indicators
Prices, jobs, interest rates, debt and housing — by presidential term, in date order.
Standing rule: no scores. Color marks whether something is in force, reversed, contested, concluded, or permanent, not good or bad.
- Color is a legal fact, not an opinion. It shows (whether something is still in force, was reversed, or is contested in court), never whether it was good or bad.
- Every number links to its source and to how strongly it can be tied to the action (). Click any figure to see the full evidence.
- Nothing here is scored, graded, or ranked. When two credible sources disagree, this archive shows both numbers instead of picking one.
- Wins are in here too. See or filter the Ledger by .
- Nobody is asking you to trust a byline. There isn’t one — the archive is anonymous, on purpose, which is exactly why it has to be checkable without one. See and check one entry against its own source yourself.
The numbers people actually feel — prices, petrol, jobs, mortgage rates, debt, house prices — each straight from the agency that publishes it, refreshed weekly, and sliced by presidential term so you can see the same measure across every administration the data reaches. Every figure here is computed from the full series when the page loads. None of it is typed in, and none of it is rounded into a headline.
Petrol prices follow crude oil. Mortgage rates follow bond markets. Employment follows the business cycle, the Federal Reserve, and the rest of the world. Every figure below would be in the ledger — it happened during the term, and nothing more is claimed. The rows are in date order and only date order, because a table of presidents sorted by outcome is a scoreboard and this archive does not keep score.
Percent and percentage points are not the same thing. For a level — a price index, a payroll count, a debt total — change is shown in percent. For a rate — unemployment, a mortgage rate, a bond yield — it is shown in percentage points, marked “pp”. Unemployment falling from 6.0 to 3.6 is −2.4pp. The same move reported as “−40%” is arithmetically true and reads as a far larger change than it is, which is exactly the sort of figure this archive exists not to publish.
Consumer prices (CPI-U)
Seasonally adjusted, all urban consumers, all items. A change in this index is a change in the average price level, which is not the same as any particular household’s cost of living: the basket is a national average and weights differ by household. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, via FRED
| Term | Window | Start → end | Change (percent) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Richard Nixonpartial | 1973-02-01 → 1974-08-01 | 43 → 49.9 | +16% |
| Gerald Fordpartial | 1974-09-01 → 1977-01-01 | 50.6 → 58.7 | +16% |
| Jimmy Carter | 1977-02-01 → 1981-01-01 | 59.3 → 87.2 | +47% |
| Ronald Reagan, first term | 1981-02-01 → 1985-01-01 | 88 → 105.7 | +20.1% |
| Ronald Reagan, second term | 1985-02-01 → 1989-01-01 | 106.3 → 121.2 | +14% |
| George H. W. Bush | 1989-02-01 → 1993-01-01 | 121.6 → 142.8 | +17.4% |
| Bill Clinton, first term | 1993-02-01 → 1997-01-01 | 143.1 → 159.4 | +11.4% |
| Bill Clinton, second term | 1997-02-01 → 2001-01-01 | 159.7 → 175.6 | +10% |
| George W. Bush, first term | 2001-02-01 → 2005-01-01 | 176 → 191.6 | +8.9% |
| George W. Bush, second term | 2005-02-01 → 2009-01-01 | 192.4 → 211.93 | +10.2% |
| Barack Obama, first term | 2009-02-01 → 2013-01-01 | 212.71 → 231.68 | +8.9% |
| Barack Obama, second term | 2013-02-01 → 2017-01-01 | 232.94 → 243.62 | +4.6% |
| Donald Trump, first term | 2017-02-01 → 2021-01-01 | 244.01 → 262.69 | +7.7% |
| Joe Biden | 2021-02-01 → 2025-01-01 | 263.58 → 318.96 | +21% |
| Donald Trump, second termpartial | 2025-02-01 → 2026-07-01 | 319.68 → 332.81 | +4.1% |
Gasoline, regular grade
A national weekly average of retail prices, not adjusted for inflation. Pump prices are set mostly by crude oil markets and refining capacity, which no president controls directly. U.S. Energy Information Administration, via FRED
| Term | Window | Start → end | Change (percent) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bill Clinton, first term | 1993-01-25 → 1997-01-13 | $1.06 → $1.24 | +17% |
| Bill Clinton, second term | 1997-01-20 → 2001-01-15 | $1.24 → $1.47 | +18.5% |
| George W. Bush, first term | 2001-01-22 → 2005-01-17 | $1.47 → $1.82 | +23.8% |
| George W. Bush, second term | 2005-01-24 → 2009-01-19 | $1.85 → $1.85 | 0% |
| Barack Obama, first term | 2009-01-26 → 2013-01-14 | $1.84 → $3.3 | +79.3% |
| Barack Obama, second term | 2013-01-21 → 2017-01-16 | $3.32 → $2.36 | -28.9% |
| Donald Trump, first term | 2017-01-23 → 2021-01-18 | $2.33 → $2.38 | +2.1% |
| Joe Biden | 2021-01-25 → 2025-01-13 | $2.39 → $3.04 | +27.2% |
| Donald Trump, second termpartial | 2025-01-20 → 2026-08-10 | $3.11 → $4.01 | +28.9% |
Unemployment rate
Counts people without work who are actively looking. It does not count people who have stopped looking, so it can fall for two opposite reasons — more people employed, or fewer people searching. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, via FRED
| Term | Window | Start → end | Change (percentage points) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Richard Nixonpartial | 1973-02-01 → 1974-08-01 | 5% → 5.5% | +0.5pp |
| Gerald Fordpartial | 1974-09-01 → 1977-01-01 | 5.9% → 7.5% | +1.6pp |
| Jimmy Carter | 1977-02-01 → 1981-01-01 | 7.6% → 7.5% | -0.1pp |
| Ronald Reagan, first term | 1981-02-01 → 1985-01-01 | 7.4% → 7.3% | -0.1pp |
| Ronald Reagan, second term | 1985-02-01 → 1989-01-01 | 7.2% → 5.4% | -1.8pp |
| George H. W. Bush | 1989-02-01 → 1993-01-01 | 5.2% → 7.3% | +2.1pp |
| Bill Clinton, first term | 1993-02-01 → 1997-01-01 | 7.1% → 5.3% | -1.8pp |
| Bill Clinton, second term | 1997-02-01 → 2001-01-01 | 5.2% → 4.2% | -1pp |
| George W. Bush, first term | 2001-02-01 → 2005-01-01 | 4.2% → 5.3% | +1.1pp |
| George W. Bush, second term | 2005-02-01 → 2009-01-01 | 5.4% → 7.8% | +2.4pp |
| Barack Obama, first term | 2009-02-01 → 2013-01-01 | 8.3% → 8% | -0.3pp |
| Barack Obama, second term | 2013-02-01 → 2017-01-01 | 7.7% → 4.7% | -3pp |
| Donald Trump, first term | 2017-02-01 → 2021-01-01 | 4.6% → 6.4% | +1.8pp |
| Joe Biden | 2021-02-01 → 2025-01-01 | 6.2% → 4% | -2.2pp |
| Donald Trump, second termpartial | 2025-02-01 → 2026-07-01 | 4.2% → 4.1% | -0.1pp |
Nonfarm payroll employment
A count of jobs on employer payrolls, not of people — someone holding two jobs is counted twice. Revised for months after first publication, so recent figures move. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, via FRED
| Term | Window | Start → end | Change (percent) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Richard Nixonpartial | 1973-02-01 → 1974-08-01 | 76,014k → 78,619k | +3.4% |
| Gerald Fordpartial | 1974-09-01 → 1977-01-01 | 78,610k → 80,690k | +2.6% |
| Jimmy Carter | 1977-02-01 → 1981-01-01 | 80,988k → 91,033k | +12.4% |
| Ronald Reagan, first term | 1981-02-01 → 1985-01-01 | 91,105k → 96,372k | +5.8% |
| Ronald Reagan, second term | 1985-02-01 → 1989-01-01 | 96,503k → 107,161k | +11% |
| George H. W. Bush | 1989-02-01 → 1993-01-01 | 107,427k → 109,790k | +2.2% |
| Bill Clinton, first term | 1993-02-01 → 1997-01-01 | 110,047k → 121,356k | +10.3% |
| Bill Clinton, second term | 1997-02-01 → 2001-01-01 | 121,673k → 132,703k | +9.1% |
| George W. Bush, first term | 2001-02-01 → 2005-01-01 | 132,788k → 132,781k | 0% |
| George W. Bush, second term | 2005-02-01 → 2009-01-01 | 133,034k → 134,079k | +0.8% |
| Barack Obama, first term | 2009-02-01 → 2013-01-01 | 133,318k → 135,257k | +1.5% |
| Barack Obama, second term | 2013-02-01 → 2017-01-01 | 135,546k → 145,628k | +7.4% |
| Donald Trump, first term | 2017-02-01 → 2021-01-01 | 145,846k → 142,863k | -2% |
| Joe Biden | 2021-02-01 → 2025-01-01 | 143,380k → 158,268k | +10.4% |
| Donald Trump, second termpartial | 2025-02-01 → 2026-07-01 | 158,310k → 158,858k | +0.3% |
30-year fixed mortgage rate
A weekly national average of quoted rates. It tracks long-term bond yields and lender margins rather than the Federal Reserve’s policy rate, which is a common confusion. Freddie Mac, via FRED
| Term | Window | Start → end | Change (percentage points) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Richard Nixonpartial | 1973-01-26 → 1974-08-02 | 7.43% → 9.47% | +2.04pp |
| Gerald Fordpartial | 1974-08-09 → 1977-01-14 | 9.5% → 8.73% | -0.77pp |
| Jimmy Carter | 1977-01-21 → 1981-01-16 | 8.73% → 14.85% | +6.12pp |
| Ronald Reagan, first term | 1981-01-23 → 1985-01-18 | 14.85% → 13.12% | -1.73pp |
| Ronald Reagan, second term | 1985-01-25 → 1989-01-13 | 12.96% → 10.81% | -2.15pp |
| George H. W. Bush | 1989-01-20 → 1993-01-15 | 10.71% → 8.04% | -2.67pp |
| Bill Clinton, first term | 1993-01-22 → 1997-01-17 | 8% → 7.87% | -0.13pp |
| Bill Clinton, second term | 1997-01-24 → 2001-01-19 | 7.85% → 7.02% | -0.83pp |
| George W. Bush, first term | 2001-01-26 → 2005-01-13 | 7.15% → 5.74% | -1.41pp |
| George W. Bush, second term | 2005-01-20 → 2009-01-15 | 5.67% → 4.96% | -0.71pp |
| Barack Obama, first term | 2009-01-22 → 2013-01-17 | 5.12% → 3.38% | -1.74pp |
| Barack Obama, second term | 2013-01-24 → 2017-01-19 | 3.42% → 4.09% | +0.67pp |
| Donald Trump, first term | 2017-01-26 → 2021-01-14 | 4.19% → 2.79% | -1.4pp |
| Joe Biden | 2021-01-21 → 2025-01-16 | 2.77% → 7.04% | +4.27pp |
| Donald Trump, second termpartial | 2025-01-23 → 2026-08-13 | 6.96% → 6.67% | -0.29pp |
10-year Treasury yield
The market’s price for lending to the federal government for ten years. It moves on expected inflation and growth, and is set by buyers and sellers rather than by any official. U.S. Department of the Treasury, via FRED
| Term | Window | Start → end | Change (percentage points) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Richard Nixonpartial | 1973-01-22 → 1974-08-08 | 6.5% → 7.97% | +1.47pp |
| Gerald Fordpartial | 1974-08-09 → 1977-01-19 | 8.03% → 7.28% | -0.75pp |
| Jimmy Carter | 1977-01-20 → 1981-01-19 | 7.26% → 12.64% | +5.38pp |
| Ronald Reagan, first term | 1981-01-20 → 1985-01-18 | 12.5% → 11.39% | -1.11pp |
| Ronald Reagan, second term | 1985-01-22 → 1989-01-19 | 11.27% → 9% | -2.27pp |
| George H. W. Bush | 1989-01-20 → 1993-01-19 | 9.03% → 6.59% | -2.44pp |
| Bill Clinton, first term | 1993-01-20 → 1997-01-17 | 6.61% → 6.56% | -0.05pp |
| Bill Clinton, second term | 1997-01-21 → 2001-01-19 | 6.52% → 5.19% | -1.33pp |
| George W. Bush, first term | 2001-01-22 → 2005-01-19 | 5.25% → 4.2% | -1.05pp |
| George W. Bush, second term | 2005-01-20 → 2009-01-16 | 4.17% → 2.36% | -1.81pp |
| Barack Obama, first term | 2009-01-20 → 2013-01-18 | 2.4% → 1.87% | -0.53pp |
| Barack Obama, second term | 2013-01-22 → 2017-01-19 | 1.86% → 2.47% | +0.61pp |
| Donald Trump, first term | 2017-01-20 → 2021-01-19 | 2.48% → 1.1% | -1.38pp |
| Joe Biden | 2021-01-20 → 2025-01-17 | 1.1% → 4.61% | +3.51pp |
| Donald Trump, second termpartial | 2025-01-21 → 2026-08-12 | 4.57% → 4.68% | +0.11pp |
Federal debt outstanding
Total public debt outstanding, quarterly. Debt accrues under budgets largely set before a term begins, and a president’s first months run on a predecessor’s appropriations — the archive’s vs. Presidents view makes the same point at length. U.S. Department of the Treasury, via FRED
| Term | Window | Start → end | Change (percent) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Richard Nixonpartial | 1973-04-01 → 1974-07-01 | $457,317M → $481,466M | +5.3% |
| Gerald Fordpartial | 1974-10-01 → 1977-01-01 | $492,664M → $669,207M | +35.8% |
| Jimmy Carter | 1977-04-01 → 1981-01-01 | $674,425M → $964,531M | +43% |
| Ronald Reagan, first term | 1981-04-01 → 1985-01-01 | $971,174M → $1.71tnM | +76.2% |
| Ronald Reagan, second term | 1985-04-01 → 1989-01-01 | $1.77tnM → $2.74tnM | +54.4% |
| George H. W. Bush | 1989-04-01 → 1993-01-01 | $2.80tnM → $4.23tnM | +51.1% |
| Bill Clinton, first term | 1993-04-01 → 1997-01-01 | $4.35tnM → $5.38tnM | +23.6% |
| Bill Clinton, second term | 1997-04-01 → 2001-01-01 | $5.38tnM → $5.77tnM | +7.4% |
| George W. Bush, first term | 2001-04-01 → 2005-01-01 | $5.73tnM → $7.78tnM | +35.8% |
| George W. Bush, second term | 2005-04-01 → 2009-01-01 | $7.84tnM → $11.13tnM | +42% |
| Barack Obama, first term | 2009-04-01 → 2013-01-01 | $11.55tnM → $16.77tnM | +45.3% |
| Barack Obama, second term | 2013-04-01 → 2017-01-01 | $16.74tnM → $19.85tnM | +18.6% |
| Donald Trump, first term | 2017-04-01 → 2021-01-01 | $19.84tnM → $28.13tnM | +41.8% |
| Joe Biden | 2021-04-01 → 2025-01-01 | $28.53tnM → $36.21tnM | +26.9% |
| Donald Trump, second termpartial | 2025-04-01 → 2026-01-01 | $36.21tnM → $39.07tnM | +7.9% |
Home prices (Case-Shiller national)
Repeat-sales index of existing single-family homes, not seasonally adjusted, and published with a two-month lag. It measures price changes on homes that sold, which is not the same as the value of all housing. S&P Dow Jones Indices, via FRED
| Term | Window | Start → end | Change (percent) |
|---|---|---|---|
| George H. W. Bush | 1989-02-01 → 1993-01-01 | 73.97 → 76.4 | +3.3% |
| Bill Clinton, first term | 1993-02-01 → 1997-01-01 | 76.33 → 83.53 | +9.4% |
| Bill Clinton, second term | 1997-02-01 → 2001-01-01 | 83.6 → 109.22 | +30.6% |
| George W. Bush, first term | 2001-02-01 → 2005-01-01 | 109.64 → 160.13 | +46.1% |
| George W. Bush, second term | 2005-02-01 → 2009-01-01 | 161.93 → 149.36 | -7.8% |
| Barack Obama, first term | 2009-02-01 → 2013-01-01 | 147.62 → 144.3 | -2.2% |
| Barack Obama, second term | 2013-02-01 → 2017-01-01 | 145.15 → 184.63 | +27.2% |
| Donald Trump, first term | 2017-02-01 → 2021-01-01 | 185 → 236.39 | +27.8% |
| Joe Biden | 2021-02-01 → 2025-01-01 | 239.17 → 323.66 | +35.3% |
| Donald Trump, second termpartial | 2025-02-01 → 2026-05-01 | 325.13 → 335.1 | +3.1% |