I'll take the former, while you go with the latter.
First, you have no idea how my IRA has done. Second, if the stock market is "almost (back) to its high", then it has taken three years (it bottomed in March of 2009) to get back to break-even. And that's before inflation. After inflation, it's still down considerably. Third, the Obama administration promised, with their "stimulus" program, that unemployment wouldn't get above 8%. It peaked at 10.1%, and has remained above 8% for over 30 months. Lastly, the greater the recession, the greater the recovery coming out of the recession. This recovery has been weaker than most. Keynesian economics failed mightily. The blue lines shown below are based on Obama administration estimates:
![[linked image]](http://static8.businessinsider.com/image/4e91f51feab8ea606f00000d/unemployment-rate-obama-stimulus.jpg)