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Obama Misery Index hits a record high
His recent comments that “the private sector is doing fine” is not substantiated by the current misery index level.
Under the Carter Administration and into the Reagan era, the media loved to tout the Misery Index. Since the creation of the index, economists have gone back several presidents to try to place the country’s misery in some historical context, and even though the media don’t like to talk about the Misery Index these days, there are still people who keep track of the numbers.
Carter has borne the shame of having the highest Misery Index in history, but you have to realize that the government since the 1980s has massaged unemployment and inflation numbers to make them look good to the public. If you use “alternative” measures that are closer to those used in Carter’s day, a different picture emerges.
While there are different takes on inflation, we use the estimates of the “real” current rate using Carter-era standards. If that’s the case, that would put Obama’s Misery Index around 26 percent, well above anything Carter achieved.