Listeneing to the Bill Bennett radio show this morning the fill in guy (I can't remember his name) mentioned the Misery Index. I had forgot all about this little index made popular during Jimmy Carter's administration. This index is simply adding the unemployment rate and the inflation rate.
You can find the misery index here.
It is interesting to note that the largest drops in the misery index were where the Presidential administrations of Truman (10.18 reduction) and Reagan (9.61 reduction) lowered taxes and the largest growth was during spending hike years of Nixon (9.21 increase), Carter (increase 7.00). B, Hussain has already grown the misery index by 3.01 to the current index of 10.74.
What scares me the most about Obama's number is that we have had deflation and no inflation to note of yet during his term. When is the other shoe going to drop? When inflation starts (and I believe it will soon) I can see that misery index going through the roof. Welcome home.... 1970's.
The good thing about all this economic "malaise" is, that I think it will bring us another Ronald Reagan and we sure use another Ronald Reagan now.
T-S,
ReplyDeleteSpot on my friend. Since Inauguration day our National Debt has gone up 26% and, yes, some of this was in the "pipeline" when B.O. was anointed. However, few , if any, informed people could make a cogent argument against the fact that the reckless spending which has occurred in the last 19 months has greatly exacerbated the situation. After at least a trillion dollars (with interest and debt service) has been or is still in process of being dumped into the ethereal economy the unemployed (think taxpayers) repose no better or perhaps even worse in spite of what we were promised. B.O.'s solution: DUMP IN FIFTY BILLION MORE DOLLARS! All of this for, at best, "make-work" projects of finite durations, at worst, more Government jobs which will be unsustainable by the taxpayers. Who is going to pay all of this back; the unemployed workers-out of their unemployment checks???? Until we can restore the Administration and Congress to leadership with business/economic acumen and fiscal responsibility so things can get back on track with a real economy and real jobs, any repayment will likely be created by the "Printing Press". Now here comes the inflation part and the "Index" rises. Also factor into our economic morass the cost of business uncertainty caused by this as well as the ill-advised Healthcare plan and other business adverse legislation that B.O. and Company still advocate like: Cap and Trade, Card Check, etc. America has shown its ability to surmount adversity, usually from the outside. We are now facing adversity from within, largely from our own making. Only we can get ourselves out of the economic quick sand that we have stepped into. See you November 2; we must begin NOW!
I would appreciate learning of any opinions as to who may best fill Reagan's shoes and why. If B.O.'s miserable performance results in another Ronald Reagan it will be the only redeeming value to come out of his Administration!
ReplyDeleteLet me do a bit more research and I'll dedicate a whole post to it.
ReplyDelete