Thursday , 28 March 2024

The Miserable State(s) of America & the World

The Misery Index is a lens through which to look at quality of life and, from an minority-moneyAmerican perspective, such misery has risen steadily since 1994. How miserable is your state (and your state of being)? Take a look.

As editor of www.FinancialArticleSummariesToday.com and www.munKNEE.com and the FREE Market Intelligence Report newsletter (sample hereregister here)   The Finance Degree Center (www.financedegreecenter.comasked that I post the following infographic* which I am pleased to do.

According to miseryindex.us/ “the misery index was initiated by economist Arthur Okun, an adviser to President Lyndon Johnson in the 1960’s. It is simply the unemployment rate added to the inflation rate. It is assumed that both a higher rate of unemployment and a worsening of inflation both create economic and social costs for a country. A combination of rising inflation and more people out of work implies a deterioration in economic performance and a rise in the misery index.”

The Misery Index from an international perspective, where absolute misery = (inflation + interest + unemployment) – (year-over-year % change in per capita GDP), flared up during the last decade with widespread social and political upheaval in many Arab countries (Arab Spring). The situation in most of those countries remain very unstable resulting in an on-going alarmingly high level of misery throughout the region.

Take a look at the infographic below for the details.

misery_index

*http://www.financedegreecenter.com/misery-index/ (© 2013  Finance Degree Center)

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