The "Misery Index" is a grim little metric designed by Carter adviser Arthur Okun, who realized that inflation and unemployment often go in opposite directions, and so focusing on one or the other often gives a skewed perception of the economy. Okun's index gives a cleaner picture of pocketbook unhappiness by combining joblessness with changes in the Consumer Price Index (the standard measure of inflation). And as James Kvaal points out, it's now at a 17-year high:
