Are we better today than four years ago?

It's an interesting question - how would you answer it?  Having recently read Kahneman's Thinking Slow and Fast I suspect most people don't actually answer it very accurately without doing a little work.  For starters, what do you actually remember from 2008?

Here are some ways to tickle your memory:

• Look at a time-series, maybe for jobs or stock prices. 
• Do a search - look for stories in Google News from 2008.  For example, the top stories with the word "economy" from 2008 include these leads:
• World leaders tackle economy - thestar.com Toronto Star - Nov 14, 2008 JEANNINE AVERSA AP WASHINGTON–With economic damage piling ever higher, US President George W. Bush and other world leaders are gathering to explore options ...
• Obama Unveils Team to Tackle 'Historic' Crisis in Economy -...New York Times - Nov 25, 2008  “There are no shortcuts or quick fixes to this crisis,” Barack Obama said as he presented his economic team in Chicago on Monday. ...
• Obama Names Volcker to Head Panel on Reviving Economy (Updat...(Bloomberg) -- President-elect Barack Obama named former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to head a new White House economic board that will propose ...
• Bush and Congress close to a deal on economic stimulus plan...New York Times - Jan 24, 2008  By David M. Herszenhorn WASHINGTON — US congressional leaders and the Bush administration were close to reaching a deal Wednesday on a $145 billion economic ... (Any one find it hard to remember the 2008 stimulus under Bush?)

 There are actually a bunch of news-headline archives if you drill down to a date:  Newseum is one, and there are also archives available from Reuters,  and for blogs, Memeorandum.