HBO on the state of the USA

     I personally hate political fluff questions, where there's no wrong answer. Even worse is when the question is real, and the answer is not. Both of these things have become extremely common, which is why I think HBO's The Newsroom is so refreshing. True it isn't an actual news show, and everything that they report is old information, BUT it is all accurate.

Here's a bunch of the things that were just mentioned, reported on the CIA World Factbook and more.

Illicit drugs:
world's largest consumer of cocaine (shipped from Colombia through Mexico and the Caribbean), Colombian heroin, and Mexican heroin and marijuana; major consumer of ecstasy and Mexican methamphetamine; minor consumer of high-quality Southeast Asian heroin; illicit producer of cannabis, marijuana, depressants, stimulants, hallucinogens, and methamphetamine; money-laundering center

Exchange rates:

British pounds per US dollar: 0.6176 (2011 est.), 0.6468 (2010 est.), 0.6494 (2009), 0.5302 (2008), 0.4993 (2007) Canadian dollars per US dollar: 0.9801 (2011 est.), 1.0302 (2010 est.), 1.1431 (2009), 1.0364 (2008), 1.0724 (2007) Chinese yuan per US dollar: 6.455 (2011 est.), 6.7703 (2010 est.), 6.8314 (2009), 6.9385 (2008), 7.61 (2007) euros per US dollar: 0.7107 (2011 est.), 0.755 (2010 est.), 0.7198 (2009), 0.6827 (2008), 0.7345 (2007) Japanese yen per US dollar: 79.67 (2011 est.), 87.78 (2010), 93.57 (2009), 103.58 (2008), 117.99 (2007)

Public debt:
67.7% of GDP (2011 est.) country comparison to the world: 35 62.8% of GDP (2010 est.) note: data cover only what the United States Treasury denotes as "Debt Held by the Public," which includes all debt instruments issued by the Treasury that are owned by non-US Government entities; the data include Treasury debt held by foreign entities; the data exclude debt issued by individual US states, as well as intra-governmental debt; intra-governmental debt consists of Treasury borrowings from surpluses in the trusts for Federal Social Security, Federal Employees, Hospital Insurance (Medicare and Medicaid), Disability and Unemployment, and several other smaller trusts; if data for intra-government debt were added, "Gross Debt" would increase by about one-third of GDP
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
3.1% (2011 est.) country comparison to the world: 60 1.6% (2010 est.)

Unemployment rate:
9% (2011 est.) country comparison to the world: 103 9.6% (2010 est.)

GDP (purchasing power parity):
$15.29 trillion (2011 est.) country comparison to the world: 2 $15.03 trillion (2010 est.) $14.58 trillion (2009 est.) note: data are in 2011 US dollars

Maternal mortality rate:
21 deaths/100,000 live births (2010) country comparison to the world: 136

Education expenditures:
5.5% of GDP (2007) country comparison to the world: 44

Obesity - adult prevalence rate:
33.9% (2006) country comparison to the world: 6

Health expenditures:
16.2% of GDP (2009) country comparison to the world: 2

Infant mortality rate:
total: 5.98 deaths/1,000 live births country comparison to the world: 174 male: 6.64 deaths/1,000 live births female: 5.3 deaths/1,000 live births (2012 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 78.49 years country comparison to the world: 50 male: 76.05 years female: 81.05 years (2012 est.)