Remember the Misery Index?

For those of you old enough to remember the Jimmy Carter years (I was in grade school), you might recall the nightly newscasts talking about the Economic “Misery Index” while also talking about gasoline shortages and who gets to buy gas on which days. Well thanks to Obama and his failure as a leader, the Misery Index is back in the news.

From IBD here:

As if the picture weren’t bleak enough, here’s one more data point to worry about — the Misery Index is on the rise.

Conceived by economist Arthur Okun in the early 1970s, the Misery Index simply adds together the inflation and unemployment rates to create an effective indicator of real-world suffering.

It gained notoriety under President Carter, whose growth-choking, easy-money policies pushed the index to its post-World War II high. Now, under President Obama’s equally disastrous economic policies, the Misery Index is making its return.

The annual inflation rate for May climbed to 3.6% as price spikes spread beyond oil and food. At the same time, May’s unemployment rate edged up to 9.1%, yielding a Misery Index of 12.7.

Admittedly, we’re a long way from the 21.98 peak during the Carter administration. But with Obama vigorously stirring the stagflation cauldron for the past 2 1/2 years, it should be no surprise that we’re heading in that direction.

Had enough hope and change yet? Here is the mop-headed idiot in charge of the Democrats talking about how they “own” this economy.