May 17, 2022

May 17, 2022, Jameela Jamil, from left, Brian Quinn, James Murray, Joe Gatto, Sal Vulcano and Andy Breckman ... [+] participate in the "The Misery Index" panel during the TBS presentation at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour at The Langham Huntington on Monday, Feb. 11, 2019, in Pasadena, Calif. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP) Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP Things have changed in our economy since the misery index was first invented in the 1970s. As I wrote on May 10 , one of the big changes is that more people own stocks — 41.9% of household wealth comes from stocks — about twice the level in 1992. So I developed a new misery index and it is higher than it’s been in the last 12 years. And it looks to me like it will keep getting worse unless a miracle happens. The Old Misery Index The last time we had high inflation in the U.S. was in the 1970s. In that decade, Richard Nixon severed the final links between the U.S. dollar and gold. The result was high inflation and high unemployment, according to Investopedia . An economist, Arthur Okun, created a simple misery index by adding the nation’s annual inflation and unemployment rates. Dubbed stagflation, several year of high inflation and high unemployment yielded a misery index of 12.7% in 1976. Jimmy Carter exploited this stagflation to help him defeat Gerald Ford. In 1980, Ronald Reagan pointed out that under Carter the misery index had increased — helping Reagan defeat Carter, noted Investopedia. MORE FOR YOU The New Misery Index Things in the economy have changed since then. Most notably more people own stocks — rising stocks make people happy and falling stocks create anxiety. What’s more economic growth also affects how people feel. High growth leads to enthusiasm about possible career opportunities and slow or declining growth causes people to hunker down. My new misery index adds the inflation rate to the unemployment rate while subtracting GDP growth and the annual increase in the S&P 500. If my new misery index is negative, people are happier than if it is positive. Sadly for our gross national happiness — at 29.2 — my new misery index is higher than it has been in the last 12 years. This calculation is based on the following components: Inflation rate: 8.3%