You're now on the archive server. Commenting has been disabled.
US Misery Index At 28 Year High
This must be another one of those things that accompany the American economy one year into the recovery (Tim Geithner©).
»
- 10047 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
So, was this Hope, Change or both?
(That was sarcasm, folks - The Suck is coming, let's all have a chuckle as we descend into Hell, eh?)
It's change you can believe in.
Both. Recovery through serious veseline budget cuts ...
jobless recovery Bitchez!
Who needs jobs when you can just print more money? Everyones getting more money right? so we are all richer. I graduated from the university of bernankistan.
Work is for suckers. All the section 8 homies in my hood figured that shit out a long time ago. Their lifestyle is the same as mine yet I go to work every day and pay for their shit. Who's the sucker in that arrangement?
Where are the c*** s***ers who voted for the kenyan marxist? They still post here on ZH.
3...2...1... until someone jumps in to claim that McCain would have been the same.
Probably, but at least he isn't a communist. That and we could stare at Palin's hot T&A standing next to him. Mmmm, she is one delicious chunk of woman that one regardless of how you feel about her politics.
You betcha! ;)
thats somebodys fuckin gramma dude.
That looks like a reverse cup and handle pattern with a nice rounded bottom (I will call it J-Lo). Upside technical measured target suggests a run to test the highs of the 1970's around the 20-22 level. So if we take out 14 here then GO LONG MISERY with a target of 20!.
Sounds too good to be true!.
+LOL
Yes, Cramer was pumping the long MISERY INDEX trade as well last night. He thinks MISERY will soon be in some lucrative M&A action with DEPRESSION and RIOTS that could boost MISERYs bottom line. Buy the August 16 Calls for the best risk/reward.
This seems about as arbitrary a stat as it gets - consumer confidence notwithstanding
recovery only a retarded president can love.
USA #1!!!!!!!!!!!11!!!!11!1one!!!
This is bullish. Nowhere to go but up! Hope and Change!
Long Misery Bitchez...lulz
Perhaps it's time for McDonald's to reintroduce the McRib...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDebd7zlb6I
Should help bump up the average a few points I'd say
I agree. When all else fails, send in the McRib.
The McRib is one of the most elusive and mysterious sandwiches ever. With all the pomp and circumstance fit for royalty, the McRib is suddenly brought onto the market for "a limited time only" then quickly and inexplicably disappears for a year or so. Then it reappears, and this has been going on for about 20 years - it almost has a "quantum" quality to it. And what's up with the pickles? Have you ever eaten ribs, and thought about adding a pickles to them?
Very, very sketchy.....
Soylent Green Anyone?
Ixny on the McRibny.
Way too much McFat and McCalories to even suggest that a mentally sound person should eat it. On the other hand, southern BBQ is eaten everyday by southerners..........wait, let me rephrase that.
Never mind. Mouth meet foot.
Trying to say something about my people CD?
lol
Actually my kin folk (WNC hillbillies) would and in many cases still do traditionally eat high fat, high caloric diets but made from natural ingredients rather than processed crap. Then again they also used to be in jobs of heavy manual labor so that tends to help out.
Oh and add 1 more to the Misery index casualty list. I got axed Friday.
Congratulations..........wait a minute............I meant.............Oh, never mind.
Is there room in an average size mouth for two feet? :>)
Unpaid vacation bitchez!
Sorry to hear that. Best of luck in your new path...
@Deepskyy, sorry to hear that. What industry were you in?
F.I.R.E.
I was the I. I sold property and casualty insurance in multiple states at a national call center.
So the salamander/gecko thingy finally displaced you? :)
Oh....wait....not Buffett?
The pickles are critical to provide textural cover for all the other little crunchy bits in the patty.
A McDonald's conniesewer, and a good friend no less, says it's all about the pickles.
He remains a friend, but I no longer remain a McDonald's customer.
Is is just me or does it look like there are McTracks on the McRib?
pods
The only tracks I see are the ones from the IVs in our arms due to quadruple heart bypass surgery from a life time eating at McSlop.
Perhaps it's time for McDonald's to reintroduce the McRib...
Should help bump up the average a few points I'd say
McNasty they should call it! I remember getting tricked into buying one of those years ago it was revolting.
You got tricked? I'm telling you, this sandwich is very shady.
In the summer of 1992, I walked outside to grab the newspaper and found a McRib nailed to my door.
WTF?
Sketchy...
Like everything in life buying a McRib is all about timing. If you get one of the fresh ones they are tasty. However having worked in the trenches, I know that they can sometimes sit in that barbeque goo for hours (days?) on end.
...to seemingly no ill effect whatsoever...
Long McMisery.
It's baaackkk....
http://www.miseryindex.us/
They should call that the "Abject Misery Index". Simply saying Misery Index just doesn't cut the mustard any more.
"Summer of Misery" 2.0 (sans aircraft carrier landings)
Yea, what is this supposed to be a measurement of?
Misery maybe?
Unemployment Rate + Inflation Rate
OK well my point is those things measured in the 80's and today are not near the same anymore. Chart is probably a mirror image in reality, swapping the 80's for today.
Agreed.
Under the guise of new and improved I suspect every index under the sun has been modified to measure less of whatever it was supposed to actually measure.
I explain it to my clients this way. How much sense would it make to measure your growth by using a 12 inch foot when you are 2 years old and then use a 6 inch foot when you are 20. You must use the same length/size foot over time to make any sense. People tend to understand when you give them real life examples.
Then they return to the Twilight Zone of the MSM and all that common sense is washed out within 72 hours.
Well at least in the 80's we had the "Miracle on Ice" to get us out of it...
Now we have "close only counts in horseshoes & handgrenades" version of US Women's soccer...
Actually, you may be more correct than you thought. If they measured unemployment and inflation the same way today as in 1979-80, we would be exceeding Carter's elevated status.
Shouldn't this be higher?
Looks like they ran out of hopium.
I'll bet the withdrawls suck.
I don't think the misery index does a great job of describing our situation. A 28-year high would sound pretty bad, but when you look to see it's just a bit over half the level of 1980, you realize there's something kinda goofy.
Unemployment and inflation numbers are both totally bogus. That makes the misery index double-bogosity.
But all you have to do is look out the window to how shitty everything is.
Misery Index is the name of a band
Here is a song they dedicated to Timmy G
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB8JQ1kHHbo
Where's the band named "The Recoveryless Recoveries"?
'The Green Shoots' plays in a local club here, headlining for 'TIMMMAAAAYYYYYYY (and the lords of the underworld)'.
Only a somewhat useful metric, and a bit misleading, as it understates economic stress in periods like 2001. Is there a hypothesis that this must rise further or that we are headed for 1981 levels? Will it be UE, inflation or both, and what would this look like back to the 1920s?
Officially-reported unemployment and inflation levels (the components of the misery index) have been "sweetened", especially since 1990. I think that we're at 1975 levels right now, at least (for example, 15% real unemployment + 5% real inflation = 20.... we could have 18% real unemployment easily + 7% real inflation... suddenly, we're at 25.....)
That would certainly be consistent with what it feels like.
Welcome to the Depression!
Can't be the depression we still have hope and some change.
Don't you guys just find this amazing. Europe banks imploding. BAC looking for a 9 handle. C below its before split price and AAPL is up 4 bucks. Yes sir, just buy an Ipad and watch the entire planet blow up financially on line. Gotta luv it.
Gotta pad those ETF 401K's that the Treasury will soon seize.
Nicely snarked. 10.0
APPL is up because they are one of the companies with more cash than the US treasury......! A basket of bonds from those 25 companies listed the other day will be the new 'safe haven' after the US defaults.
just don't think you can pay for that with cash... Ask baby_Blythe...
"Yes sir, just buy an Ipad and watch the entire planet blow up financially on line"
LoL... that's exactly what i'm doing
The Greatest Depression still unrecognized by the power hungry politicians.
And....all the sheeples care about is where is Casy. Amazing.
The dopes are just taking orders from Nancy Grace to demand "Justice for CayLee" What does this mean exactly? Find the real killers or put a bullet in the head of Casey Anthony the "real" killer.
Well, I guess they had Patty Hearst, KISS, and "Happy Days" to keep 'em quiet in '75.... the quality of our distractions has definitely gone down since then.....
It's all because Obama can't even tell the difference between the Jefferson's & Sanford & Son
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hcg1SOad7Z8
But then, how could he be expected to know? Wasn't he living in Indonesia then?
OK - informal ZH poll:
Who was hotter when first making headlines?
Casey Anthony or Patty Hearst?
Skank counts.
Patty looked cute in a beret. Casey Anthony's special area probably smells like a 4-day old McRib left in the sun. Advantage, Patty Hearst.
Is that adjusted for changes in CPI and unemployment calculations?
No--- and honestly, we are AT LEAST at 15% unemployment and 5% inflation right now... hello 1975.... Travis Bickle land.....
And only set to get worse as their 1 answer- 'cntrl alt prnt' gets mashed harder now.
where does tyler get his charts from?
The Mayor of NYC.
Bloomberg...
Does .misery account for various changes in reporting methodology over the years?
No adjustment. In reality, we are at 20 or above, like in the mid '70s.
Thanks SoNH80.
Misery is a tradeable commodity? Whats this chart a measure of?
Official Headline Unemployment PLUS Official Consumer Price Index annual rate of increase.
All by design
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbiPDSxFgd8
"Break on through..."
This is hilarious to me. The misery of the 70/80's was imagination compared to today. If it was worse then, the metrics must have been changed substantially since. I will guess it is 5 times worse today at minimum. The facts probably make it 10x. Reality? 5 cents on the dollar. When they can't even make a chart that reflects reality, we have to be neck deep in the cess.
Exactly, we had nowhere near the unemployment, bankruptcies, foreclosures, loss of wealth in the 80's compared to today at all... I know, I was there. So I dont know what this is supposed to be a composite index of, but it doesnt look right to me.
Yep. Unemployment is understated far more dramatically, inflation is understated far more dramatically, and the dollar is worth much less.
And what I find fascinating is that most people do not relate to 1,600 gold. I mean, come on, that is screaming at us that we are f____d.
Beyond words. Lets go see the new Harry Potter movie. That will fix everything.
And, off topic, as much as I am an American, it was good that Japan won the World Cup. They needed that after what this year has given them.
MBIA, PMI, RDN, MTG, GNW, RBS ... trading like something major is about to happen. Eary reminder of the days before Lehman, Bear Stearns, and other investment bank melt downs.
There goes 1,300 spoos. No shorts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dGoKgSknuk&feature=related
...hobbling experience, this whole black hole event horizon thing, isn't it? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Zzg3UP-x8k&feature=related
So how can I improve my personal misery index? Thinking about buying Phys gold/silver, but I wonder ...when they finally agree on raising the debt ceiling at the last minute, (because the politicians all want to be re-elected), the market will blow a temporary sigh of relief, and stocks will go up (briefly), gold drop a bit back tp 1550 (hey, 5O bucks may not be a lot to you guys but it's my week's whiskey allowance-which is the only thing that improves my misery), and that might be the last window before the PMs slip out of sight.
Like Lennon (not to be confused with the Russian leader) said 'Happiness is a warm gun'....surprising how much a nice rifle and lots of ammo for it tends to lift the personal misery index.
You know he was talking about a needle and not a firearm, right?
OH nooo not that nice Mr Lennon?
Alcohol enemas are a far more efficient way to dose that particular drug. You skip the 1st-pass effect and a single cocktail's worth of alcohol can have up to ten times greater effect.
So my suggestion is buy dirt-cheap vodka, administer rectally, and a week's worth of your whiskey allowance will cover a few months.
"Hey bartender, a little help over here!"
pods
...when your vision is still good enough to see an escape from being the pimp'd out whore, use the short shot glass if you have the opportunity and the need to still drink from the BTFD Cup of Fornication. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MxkpCe4Iv4
Soon they're going to start using the same formula that North Korea uses for its Global Happiness Index. That should put Birinyi's ruler back in play.
The Misery Index still has a long way to go for the all time record, but $5 gallon gas and more deficits will fix that.
This is Jimmy Carter and gold price deja vu, but this time there is no Paul Volcker to pull the USD out of their ass.
We might not be at Jimmy Carter levels quite yet (no gas lines for example), but we are probably at Jerry Ford levels right now for sure. 15% real unemployment plus 5% real inflation equals Misery Index of 20. The big cheats on headline unemployment are, (1) if you've been unemployed for a long time, you officially no longer exist (luckily, U6 still captures you to some extent), and (2) birth-death model B.S. (50% of the 'job growth' numbers since 2009 have been composed of phantom jobs supposedly being created by imaginary new small businesses).
Good point. They've made the yardsticks longer to make the records harder to break.
Misery Index is a psychological exercise anyway, and in a sense, also measures the effectiveness of central planning propaganda. MSM has even resorted lately to doing stories on how nice it is for the millions of unemployed to be able to spend all that extra free time with their families.
Misery index would be a way higher if Bush were still president with 24/7 pictures of hungry children and long lines at the unemployed shown on TV, as they would be.
"The plight of the unemployed" isn't really talked about too much these days, isn't it? They make constant passing mention of high unemployment, but fewer and fewer human interest stories about the unemployed or the poor in general since BHO's inauguration. Maybe they're trying to keep our spirits up for the shopping mall by papering over these problems, but you know what, even the much-maligned "sheeple" privately know what's going down, and increasingly agree that the evening t.v. news and the press are good for fairy tales and gossip, but the reality of life in the U.S. today is very, very different. Sooner or later, reality asserts its ugly head..... and the stock market baloney is a side show for the benefit of the richest tenth (or 5%.....) ...people know that we're in deep shit.....
Little OT:
Jim Sinclair on KWN indicated several times $1750-1754 was an important technical price point for gold, and thereafter would start to go parabolic. But why? Any technicians, or anybody, know why that is such an important number? Sinclair is usually and uncannily right. I have no reason to doubt it, but devolving minds want to know.
It just seems like another number and a bit of an odd one. It's still $600 from the all time inflation adjusted high of 1980 and it's not a psychological milestone like $2000. So, why $1754?
Important since $1750 is just around the corner. Is this the last opportunity to feast on physical gold?
Hope & Change. I used to think both parties were the same but the lefty elite media goes out of it's way to demonize the Repubs. The Repubs are no prize but the Dems are evil sh*t.
Two sides of the same coin.
Really? Why doe sthe leftist/elite media demonize repubs 24x7? I picked up a rag newspaper and they were making the GOP look evil in the faux debt negotiations. Never an unkind word is spoken by the media about the afrikaan furher.
You're behind the curve a little bit. The Dems have the intellectuals, the media, including Hollywood, and the banksters. The GOP has Middle America, the energy industry, the churches, and the banksters. Spot the commonality? The general difference is one of flavor, not substance. If the GOP were in power in D.C., no way that the Tea Party people would be allowed to call the shots, period. The old bait and switch..... the last major U.S. politician that pretty much did what he'd say he'd do was Ronald Reagan, and even he failed on many fronts (especially domestically, with Tip O'Neill running Congress).
... and by "banksters", I don't mean your friendly local First National Bank of Podunk, or even the well-run regional bank, but the jerks with their grubby hands constantly grabbing printed or confiscated $$$$$. You know who.
What I want to know is why the media's blacking out all reportage on the Casey Anthony case. Something just doesn't smell right there. It's like they don't want us to know the truth or something.
if Americans think they are miserable now, wait until their currency collapses. Big wake up ahead.
- 07-18 11:26: Fed's Bernanke says the US is still feeling the effects of crisis, adding that the process of recovery is complex
Recovery is complex, bitchez!Like Obama said in his 'Eat your peas' speech, we're not 'professional politicians' so we just dont get it.
Hopium is still in effect, for now. Otherwise, if people really knew the true unemployment, etc it would be more like 20 or 40. I've started to notice what I can only call panic buying by senior citizens at my local walmart... stocks of things like sugar, flour, and other items people used to cook with are flying off the shelves... I stood behind 3 people buying at least 300 dollars worth of food on food stamps at wally world, before I got to the register. I also noticed that the prices on a lot of ordinary food items had jumped up in price... for example Mac and Cheese that had been 50 cents was now on sale for 75 cents a box, etc. Inflation + unemployment = misery... right? So, report how things are going in your area. I am curious if people are seeing the same things as I am.
Zerohedge had a recent piece that showed 60% of the 'workforce' is employed, which means to me 40% are not, therefore a 40% real unemployment rate minimum!
Just FYI, the "workforce participation rate" referenced there doesn't filter out the people who don't work by choice, or who are unable to work: stay-at-home moms/dads, the retired, the disabled, prisoners. BUT-- the best guess for the current real unemployment rate, that is, people who want to work, but can't find a job--- is somewhere between 15 and 20 percent. That is a catastrophic unemployment rate. There have only been two times in the last century where the U.S. has had such high unemployment: 1931-1939, and 1981-1982. This is BAD.
Right, well even U-6 admits near 18%, so yea no doubt its bad for the guy out in the street.
The modern welfare state tamps down the 1930's visceral fear of seeing bread lines and shacks with your neighbors and friends in them EVERY DAY that led people to freak out and save every penny..... but when the game of Monopoly Money musical chairs stops, it will be very, very ugly. The failure to get new jobs into the pipeline, after all of these Keynesian exertions, exposes the total bankruptcy of mainstream economics.... where's the jobs??? Where's the beef? Hell, even FDR-style CCC/WPA make work jobs would be more socially and economically useful than the current toxic blend of endless war, welfare checks, Congressional pork, and bankster bailouts..... at least a man with a WPA job or building a state park with the CCC had some dignity, and led to some lasting benefits..... but dignity and social usefulness don't count for anything anymore. So the money is pissed away, and the jobs don't come.
Not only does modern welfare keep the breadlines out of sight... but it conditions the middle class (what's left of it) to accept and be a part of the neobreadlines, in common with those on total government subsidy... hmmm, it wouldn't be that bad to be on SNAP... they shop the same I do... even get more stuff than me... etc. etc.
But, Gallaird Capital Management says that lots of people are unemployed by choice. Their thesis seems to be that items cost less so people do not feel the need to work more, ie- a lack of labor supply, less so demand for labor.
https://www.galliard.com/downloads/Investment_Perspectives_Apr2011.pdf
Yes. I have seen the same thing. Price inflation weekly on food. More sickening in the old people are not on food stamps and illegals and Oba voters are. They have 4 to 5 kids and 2 shopping carts filled with junk - all free. Old people trying to buy just enough to eat. The old people in America are so screwed. This is just like when the old USSR imploded but it will be much worse here.
Hope & Change. The fvkkers are so brainwashed by TV and every channel, newspaper, media, hollywood is all the same.
The fvkkers are so brainwashed by TV and every channel, newspaper, media, hollywood is all the same.
Isn't your avatar a picture of Scarface? Hollywood casts a wide shadow, you know.
Actually Oliver Stone got one thing right in that movie when Tony talks about how shitty it is living under Castro/Ubama. Soviet shoes with holes in them - every meal is octopus. Chubatos on every street corner watching you (and holding Hope & Change signs).
My guess is is Brian DePalma told cokehead Stone - "don't fvkk this up Mel."
Time for a Stress Test for the Misery Index!
Also, add paper margin requirements for Fiat VS Stress test numbers.
Viola! Everything is fine. Go back to America’s Got Talent and Casey Anthony.
wally_12
So where will you be spending the next 99 weeks?
Gotta look on the bright side of life dee do, dee do, dee do do doody do
Unrepentent spending...shameful excesses....reckless debts...
We deserve Misery.
Transitory misery.
Life really is a "bell curve" and we better well get damned used to it. Most of us are in the middle and business and the government better figure out how to make compensation for the 95% of us below the top 5% more equitable. Everyone from the middle to the right side of the curve better be comfortable to extremely comfortable. The left side all the way to the bottom better have at least the minimum needed for Life, Liberty and the means to pursue the right side of the earnings curve! Otherwise we are talking about a lot of people with guns who will have no problem screaming, "Off with their heads!!!"
Transitory Misery Index
According to SGS (ShadowStats) it is more like 25... (U-6 at 16.2% and pre-Clinton CPI at 11.2%)
The real misery index (Defacto 28.62% Unemployment plus 1980 Methodology CPI 11.6%) is at all time highs of 30+%
misery loves company, they are not going down without a scrum for the lifejackets which remain aboard ship.