by Calculated Risk on 5/10/2023 03:33:00 PM

For fun, here is an update to the graph of economist Arthur Okun's misery index (popularized by President Reagan).

Okun added inflation and the unemployment rate together as a measure of "misery".

Click on graph for larger image.

Currently YoY inflation is at 4.9%, and the unemployment rate is at 3.4% for a "misery index" value of 8.3. 

This is down from 8.5 in March, and below the median of 9.6 over the last 50 years.

The all-time low was 5.0 during Obama's 2nd term.