Misery Index (1959, 1975)

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MISERY INDEX--49,200 Google hits, 3,500 Google Groups hits
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John Kerry has been calculating a "Misery Index."
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OED ("miserable on misery") has 1977. And that's a new "misery."
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(GOOGLE)
John Kerry for President -
Record Deterioration in the Middle-Class Misery Index. ... The data used to compute the
Middle-class Misery Index are available from 1976 through 2003. KEY FINDINGS. ...
www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/releases/pr_2004_0412.html - 20k - Cached - Similar pages

Tutor2u - the misery index
... the misery index. The misery index was initiated by Chicago Economist Robert Barro
in the 1970's. ... Normal Misery Index = Unemployment rate + Inflation rate. ...
www.tutor2u.net/economics/content/ topics/macroeconomy/misery_index.htm - 14k - Cached - Similar pages
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NBC - Depressing economy, misery index & Krugman debunked
... In the 1970s, the late Arthur Okun devised the "misery index" — simply
adding together the inflation rate and the unemployment rate. ...
rec.music.artists.springsteen - May 4, 2003 by SMBalloon - View Thread (8 articles)

The Misery Index
The Club for Growth researched the so-called "misery index," determined by adding
the inflation rate and the unemployment rate, to calculate a figure for the ...
soc.retirement - Apr 6, 2004 by Lee K - View Thread (4 articles)
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(OED) Â
 b. misery guts colloq., a miserable or irritable person. misery index Econ. (orig. and chiefly U.S.), an informal measure of the state of an economy obtained from the sum of the rate of inflation and the unemployment statistics, devised by American economist Arthur Okun (1928-80). misery whip N. Amer. colloq., a whipsaw.
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1977 C. E. MUELLER in Antitrust Law & Econ. Rev. 8 (title) Inflation and unemployment: the ‘*misery’ index. 1992 K. PILBEAM Internat. Finance 342 We assume that the pay-off to each economy is measured by a ‘misery-index’the misery index is simply the sum of an economy's inflation and unemployment rates... The aim of economic policy will be to minimise an economy's misery index.
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Okun, n.
 Â  Â 3. Okun index (also Okun's index) = misery index s.v. MISERY n. 11b.. rare.

  1986 U.S. News & World Rep. (Nexis) 8 Sept. 53 ‘There isn't a heck of a lot of misery as measured by Okun's index,’ says Edward Yardeni, chief economist for Prudential-Bache Securities. 2001 Applied Econ. (Nexis) 20 Feb. 407 The discomfort or misery-index.., originally developed by Okun and therefore also known as the Okun index.
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(PROQUEST HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS)
 Â  MISERY INDEX PHONE; Weather Inquiries Will Get the Discomfort Quotient
New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: May 28, 1959. p. 11 (1 page)
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 Â  Giving Weather a Bad Name
New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Jun 5, 1959. p. 26 (1 page) Â
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 Â  Policy Fixed On Job Cuts
By Mike Causey. The Washington Post, Times Herald (1959-1973). Washington, D.C.: Jul 2, 1968. p. A19 (1 page):
Here's the Government's official misery index, showing when non-airconditioned employes can be released: Temperature 95, humidity 55;... Â
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 Â  Officials Ponder Air Pollution Rules
By Mike Causey. The Washington Post, Times Herald (1959-1973). Washington, D.C.: Jul 19, 1972. p. C23 (1 page)
Here's a repeat of the official "misery index that of heat-humidity readings under which goivernment agencies may dismiss employees in non-airconditioned offices. Â  Â
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 Â  U.S. 'Misery Index' Posts Slight Decline From a Year Earlier; Congressional Panel Is Told Current Conditions Could Cause More Heart Disease,
Wall Street Journal (1889-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Dec 9, 1975. p. 4 (1 page):
ATLATNA--U.S. citizens aren't as miserable as they were a year ago, but they still feel pretty bad.
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And if hard times don't end soon, cardiovascular disease linked to the recession will continue growing, as will suicides among women.
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Those theories emerged from hearings yesterday here by Congress's Joint Economic Committee, headed by Sen. Hubert Humphrey (D., Minn.). The session was the third in a five-city swing to study the nation's unemployment and recession problems.
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The state of American's feelings was disclosed by the committee's "misery index," which currently stands at 14.8
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Bur Dr. M. Harvey Brenner of Johns Hopkins University said the current recession is uncovering some new trends.
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Commenting on Dr. Brenner's testimony, Sen. Humphrey said, "This corroborates our misery index," which is a total of the unemployment rate plus the rate of inflation.
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 Â  Heller asks tax cut to bolster US; Economist advocates complete policy shift
By Richard L. Strout Staff correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor. Christian Science Monitor (1908-Current file). Boston, Mass.: Jun 28, 1979. p. 4 (1 page):
...that unemployment may also be around 8 percent, so that what he (Walter W. Heller--ed.) calls the "misery index" will be 16 percent...