The Misery Index
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I haven't seen discussion about the "Misery Index" for long time, but, here we are.
https://inflationdata.com/articles/misery-index/
he misery index helps determine how the average citizen is doing economically and it is calculated by simply adding the Annual inflation rate to the Seasonally Adjusted unemployment rate. The chart below includes inflation, unemployment, misery index and who was President.
As inflation rises the cost of living increases and as unemployment rises more people cross the economic line into poverty. Therefore, this index is a quick and dirty metric to gauge the health of the economy since both high unemployment and high inflation are major factors to the average wage earner.
Unfortunately, although data for the annual inflation rate is available back to 1914 (the CPI index began in 1913) data for the misery index is only available back to 1948 due to the lack of unemployment numbers prior to 1948. The original Misery index was created by economist Arthur Okun during the Johnson administration in the 1960s, not by Robert Barro as some people mistakenly believe. Barro created the “Barro Misery Index” (BMI) in 1999, which also includes interest rates and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) trend into the mix.
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It's kind of funny that "the other BMI" is a misery index, too.
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It's kind of funny that "the other BMI" is a misery index, too.
@doctor-phibes said in The Misery Index:
It's kind of funny that "the other BMI" is a misery index, too.
And the "B" stands for "Barro."
It's almost like "baro..."
Coincidence? You decide.
