How Miserable? Index Says the Worst in 28 Years
When it comes to measuring the combination of unemployment and inflation, it doesn’t get much more miserable than this.
In fact, misery, as measured in the unofficial Misery Index that simply totals
the unemployment and inflation rates, is at a 28-year high, reflective of how weak the economic recovery has been and how far there is to go.
The index, first compiled during the soaring inflation days of the 1970s by economist Arthur Okun, is registering a nausea-inducing 12.7—9.1 percent for unemployment and 3.6 percent for annualized inflation—a number not seen since 1983. The index has been above 10 since November 2009 and had been under double-digits from June 1993 through May 2008.
The good news, of course, is that the Fed-led Paul Volcker embarked on a highly successful inflation-slaying campaign that brought the level of misery down sharply through the rest of the ’80s recovery decade.
The bad news, of course, is all the bad news.
