Can we chat?
Jimmy Carter invented the Misery Index – the combined unemployment rate plus inflation rate – in order to flog his 1976 opponent, Jerry Ford, about the head. As most often happens with Democrats, his own policies led to even more misery and he ended up beating Ford’s misery score by a full 2 percentage points, topping the misery index at 22%.
Now cometh Joe Biden with his bag of magic beans. So far his official score is 10.9%. At the time he took the reins, so to speak, the misery index was under 7% and unemployment was on the decline. Joey beat that by 4 points after just one year in office. And mind you, since the Carter misery years the government has done its level best to keep the two indices artificially low.
First, our bureaucratic betters removed several key measures from the CPI “market basket” during the Obama years. It no longer reflects increases in food or energy. While they are still tracked in other indices, the number most quoted does not include them because they are considered too “volatile” – well yes, isn’t that the point? That type of volatility is likely to create great misery. Likewise the food index does not reflect the inflation due to the incredible shrinking packaging size of many consumer food products.
Likewise the unemployment rate does not include anyone who hasn’t looked for work within the last 4 weeks – the “discouraged” job seeker - they are completely ignored. Thus the Labor Participation Rate hangs near historically low levels with both discouraged wage seekers and lay-abouts, willing to survive on government “stimulus” handouts, excluded from the calculation.
They say that history doesn’t exactly repeat itself, rather it rhymes. We are witnessing that in real time. The kids are too young to recognize it but those of us who danced to disco in leisure suits sure do. Stagflation isn’t a state of mind, it’s true misery. And the Brandon Administration has done everything in their power to Make America Miserable Again. Some of us thought we’d NEVER again see a President as bad as Jimmy Carter, but Joey Biden has managed to top Jimmy’s incompetency in just a quarter of the time.
Quite the performance: from MAGA
to MAMA
Make America Miserable Again
in just under12 months is impressive by anyone’s standard. Even Jimmy’s.
I’ve waited 4 years to say this: Miss Me Yet?
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