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You're pretty close to being toast. Nerves are frazzled, homes are being evacuated, jobs lost and families are torn apart. Oh, the rookie Hussein has performed magic, all right. Kinda nuts. But it's what Barry King planned all along. This is his vision. Wealth distribution. And it's only getting started. How do you make it? Old money, new money, food stamps, living with the folks, moving in with the neighbor? How are you doing it? Are there any really good tips to make it through the Hussein years? And don't give me any guff on that '$40k on the credit...

Gas prices are on the rise nationwide, but one filling station in Florida has earned the dubious distinction of having the highest prices in the country. Suncoast Energys, located near the Orlando International Airport, was charging $5.69 a gallon for regular gasoline on Friday. That's the highest of any gas retailer in the nation, according to price tracker gasbuddy.com. By contrast, the average price in the city of Orlando is $3.78 a gallon, a few pennies below the state and national averages. Patrick DeHann, senior analyst at gasbuddy.com, said many tourists use the station before returning rental cars on the...

While this barometer of unemployment + inflation posted its near-term peak in December 2009 and had been falling for the past year, 2011 has seen a sharp reversal. In fact, with April CPI (Consumer Price Index) data forecast to rise to 3.0% from 2.7% in March, the misery index is set to post its 4th consecutive monthly increase. What's troubling with this is that misery is creeping back despite the slow but steady slide in unemployment, meaning that, this time, it's all about inflation

PRINCETON, NJ - The latest Gallup Daily tracking three-day average shows 41% of Americans approving of the job Barack Obama is doing as president. That ties his low as president, which he registered three times previously -- twice in August 2010 and once in October 2010. July 2009-April 2011 Trend: Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president? % Approve The current 41% approval rating from April 12-14 polling includes interviews conducted before and after Obama announced his plan for deficit reduction on Wednesday. It also comes in the same week Congress...

For those old enough to remember, the late 1970's and early 1980’s were consumed by periods of high unemployment, high inflation, and devastating interest rates. The national debt was almost $1 Trillion. Interest rates were in the high teens and inflation was equally high. President Reagan, in a national debate, asked the devastating rhetorical question which haunted then President Carter, “Are we better off today than we were four years earlier?” The answer to the question was intuitively obvious to the most casual observer at the time and is believed to have had a significant effect on the outcome of...

Remember the “Misery Index?” If, like me, you are a “child of the 70’s and 80’s,” then you probably have some acquaintance with the term. Yet we don’t hear much about the Misery Index anymore. And given all that is and is not happening economically in our country right now, it seems like an appropriate time to bring back the index, although we’ll need to amend it just a bit. Let me explain. Back in 2009 when my co-author and I were doing research for our new book “The Virtues Of Capitalism,” I came across some background information about the...

White House: The Economy Is Lost Obama Admin. Says “Nothing Is Possible” To Help Struggling Economy As Jobless Claims Hit Nine-Month High, Employers “Scared To Death”; Gop Listening And Offering Better Solutions Washington (Aug 19) With President Obama set to take off for Martha’s Vineyard in a matter of hours, the Obama Administration says “NOTHING IS POSSIBLE” (their caps, not ours) to help an economy showing new signs of job losses and employer uncertainty. (Now, this is a peculiar admission coming from a White House that is also saying, despite his vacation, that the president is “working hard to do...

There is plenty of misery around the United States in 2010 but some cities are experiencing more of it than others. There was plenty of it to go around from January to December 2009. Do they have some things in common that puts them in that category?

With today’s release of December inflation data by the US government, the Misery Index officially rose to Carter era levels. The Misery Index is the unemployment rate plus the inflation rate. During the 48 months of the Carter presidency, the lowest Misery Index was 12.60. With the release of today’s numbers, we now know that the December 2009 Misery Index was 12.72. Some historical perspective: during the 96 months of G. W. Bush’s presidency, the Misery Index never surpassed 11.47. When Obama became president, the Misery Index was 7.63. In the eleven months of the Obama presidency for which data...

Friday's poor employment number will cause political problems for the Democrats as the touted benefits of their policies fail to pass the spin zone. The numbers "saved" ruse will become increasingly absurd as the unemployment number remains stubbornly high. Instead of jobs saved being recycled we might start hearing more about the total jobless rate - which includes discouraged workers no longer looking - that ticked up to 17.3% from 17.2%. Many of the unemployed are out of work for longer periods of times, stoking a revulsion against incumbents and the leaders of this country that are right now all...

Stagflation, the worst of both worlds (anemic economic growth and high inflation) brings back less than fond memories of the 1970's, along with the misery index, which is calculated adding the inflation rate to the unemployment rate. Until the 1960's, Keynesian economists had thought that those two economic events couldn't happen at the same time.

Misery Index All Over Again http://www.wiseandfrugalgovernment.blogspot.com/ During the Dark Days of the Carter Administration, through the bleak haze of stagflation (for the under 50 crowd stagflation is: a period of slow economic growth and high unemployment (stagnation) while prices rise (inflation)--sound familiar?) we were told America's best days were past. Not that Jimmy Carter's message was that direct. He was dignified as a Presidenct should be; he used subtle language; he set a good example. When oil prices shot through the roof, Carter was a picture of calm, addressing the nation before the comforting flame of the presidential fireplace, dressed...

Click on the photo of one minute and seventeen seconds, to view the video. Here is video of GOP congressman Dave Camp from Michigan unveiling the "Obama Misery Index," or the OMI - "Oh, My Index." It focuses on the "stunning rise in debt and unemployment."

Thirty years after Jimmy Carter's malaise speech, we return to the days of rising joblessness, an unresponsive economy, deference to dictators, gutting the military and an energy policy tilting at windmills... As history repeats itself on the anniversary of the speech MSNBC's Chris Matthews wrote, we wonder if the "Hardball" host, who has worked for four Democratic politicians, is still getting tingles up his legs. The Democratic Party apparently has learned nothing in the past three decades. Will we see a return of the misery index? The only thing that's different is the sweater.

Did you know Resident Obama (I refuse to refer to him as President since he refuses to release information to show he is eligible) assumed the presidency under the best economic times for a new president since Lyndon Johnson became president? You WERE better off before he took office and you WILL be Far worse off with each passing day under his "Reign". Barack Obama took over an economy that WAS in better shape than any new president has enjoyed in 45 years. The much maligned War spending vs Resident Barack Obama spending get a grip the business's have and...

THIS IS AN EXCERPT. The Obama administration is certain to prolong and deepen the economic recession, with the result that unemployment and inflation will increase, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert contends. ... "Now, as president, Obama has repeatedly blamed the current economic recession on President Bush, alleging his administration 'inherited an economic mess' that will take years to resolve," Corsi wrote. "However, a close look at the table below shows that the Misery Index under President Obama is increasing, as unemployment edges close to 9 percent." The Misery Index, created by economist Arthur Okun, is obtained by adding the unemployment...

While reading reactions to Stanford economist John Taylor’s op-ed in the Financial Times last week, I kept running into the phrase “deficits caused by tax cuts”; one liberal commentator after another wrote that Taylor forfeited his right to complain about the Obama administration’s trillion-dollar deficits when he called for Bush’s tax cuts to be made permanent. Some also criticized Taylor’s arithmetic, arguing that he deliberately or accidentally overstated the rate of inflation it would take to return to a pre-Obama ratio of debt-to-GDP in ten years’ time. And Paul Krugman devoted his Friday column to the subject of Taylor’s stated...

During the 1976 Presidential campaign, Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter frequently referenced something called the "Misery Index" to suggest the Republican incumbent ought not be re-elected due to the index's high level, which was about 13.57% at that time. Carter won the 1976 election, and the Misery Index reached an all-time high of 21.98% under his administration. Just what is a "misery index," and what type of misery index are we facing under an Obama administration? http://conservativebrawler.blogspot.com/2009/03/looming-threat-of-another-carter-esk.html

Iceland's central bank has raised its key interest rate to 18% from 12% as it battles against financial collapse. The rise comes less than two weeks after Iceland cut rates from 15.5%. The central bank governor said the increase was part of its agreement with the International Monetary Fund, from which it borrowed $2bn (£1.3bn). Iceland's prime minister said the country needed another $4bn in loans and had approached the European Central Bank and the US Federal Reserve. Currency slump Central bank governor David Oddsson said that he hoped the rise in rates would only last for a short time...

Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday his remarks were "careless or misinterpreted" when he said the Bush administration has been the "worst in history" for its impact around the world. Speaking on NBC's "Today," Mr. Carter appeared to retreat from a statement he made to Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in which he said: "I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history." The comment was in a story published in the newspaper Saturday. Mr. Carter said Monday that when he made the comment, he was responding to a question...