Are we better off than we were four years ago? Mitt Romney thinks we are. In an interview earlier this year, he said, “of course [the economy is] getting better” under President Obama. But Romney hasn’t been a reliable source of information, so let’s check the available data.

Under George W. Bush, in September 2008, the U.S. was in a financial panic: the economy was shrinking rather than growing; we were losing jobs by hundreds of thousands per month; corporate profits took a dive; household wealth declined sharply; foreclosures were escalating; investment banks were failing; Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were placed into conservatorship, and the groundwork was being laid for Bush’s $700 billion bailout of the financial system.