Thursday, January 14, 2016

Misery index low in US

This is a new concept to me. I suspect a NZ version may be quite similar. While our current unemployment rate is higher than the US (Sept - 6% vs 5.2%) our labour force participation rate is quite a bit higher. And both countries have low inflation which, according to Brookings, voters don't worry about like they used to.

Maybe people aren't that miserable. Not as miserable as New Zealand's opposition politicians would like them to be anyway.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

People in Oregon sure are miserable - and aren't going to take any more communism from the Obama federal government!

Anonymous said...

History is littered with kings etc... resting snugly in their beds one night and dead the next. Bad news can see happiness replaced by misery in short order and I suspect local politicians are desperate to keep bad news well buttoned up. Presently we are ticking along OK as far as the masses are concerned so no short term worries but one should not become complacent.

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