The Misery Index

Feeling Miserable?

   Your answer to that question is probably "YES!"  To put our problems into some perspective, I present the chart below. Such a presentation allows me to quickly provide a post, the first one in several days, and it will show you that we have been miserable before. Actually our misery may be more inflated than the chart indicates since the variables in it relate to economic matters which are less troubling than the social, cultural and climate issues surrounding us. 

Click on the chart for a better view of it.

Sources:

   The chart was found in: "Remember the 1970s Misery Index? It's Back and On the Rise," Jason Kirby, G&M, March 23, 2022.  Here is how it begins:

"The index is a measure of financial distress. Born out of the 1970s, when consumers faced the dismal reality of prices for everyday goods surging at double-digit rates even as unemployment skyrocketed—a phenomenon known as stagflation—the index combined the inflation rate plus the unemployment rate. Over the years, variations of the index have added other factors, like interest rate changes and GDP per capita. Nevertheless, the core measure of prices and joblessness shown here remains a popular yardstick for economic hardship. And it’s on the rise."

   Once again Wikipedia does a good job of providing information about the Misery Index and various offshoot indices. 

   For some Canadian information see: "Ottawa's Pro-inflation Policies Fuel the Misery Index," Matthew Lau, Financial Post, Jan. 26, 2022. It is noted that: "Canada Ranked Sixth Highest on the Misery Index - the Sum of the Unemployment and Inflation Rates - out of 35 Industrialized Countries in 2021."

   For more see the Fraser Institute, "The Misery Index Returns," Jan. 18, 2022. 

The Bonus:

   More bad news, the political situation is also terrible. This is a headline in the G&M:

"The Vacuum at the Centre of Canadian Politics: An Incompetent, Unethical Government Faces an Intemperate, Unhinged Opposition," Andrew Coyne, June, 24. 2022. 

"Over the last few weeks and months it has become impossible to escape the feeling that Canadian politics has come loose from its moorings. There is a manic edge to it, as if the inmates had suddenly and collectively declared themselves absolved of any remaining obligations to common sense, or the ordinary routines of democratic politics, or the rule of law."

   South of the border these sentiments recently were expressed by Bret Stephens:

In answer to a question he says: "Which sort of brings us to the nub of the problem: Conservatives want policies that don’t work in practice and liberals want policies that don’t work in politics." (NYT, June, 6).  The following week he notes: 

"Every time I think of Democrats and lose my hope, I think of Republicans and lose my lunch. The same conservatives telling us that we have a mental-health crisis, particularly among boys and young men, see nothing amiss with giving them almost unlimited access to weapons. It’s like sending a loved one to a Betty Ford clinic while insisting that there should be an open bar out front in the lobby on Tuesdays." (He is, by the way, a 'conservative.')

At least it is sunny outside and the days are still long.

The Covid Misery Index

   Apart from the various economic misery indices, there is one for that other miserable event - the pandemic. It shows how Canada ranks among other nations in terms of managing the response to the coronavirus.