Misery Index

Obama's economic advisor Laura Tyson went on Colbert last night and made some comments that were outright lies (which is amusing considering how much the Democrats are bashing Lieberman for lying about Obama's voting record, which I'm not touching with a 10-foot-pole at this time).

What she tried to say is that the Misery Index is the best economic indicator, and that it shows the country as doing better under Democratic presidents than under Republican presidents historically. Here's the truth of the matter:

Name	Average	First Month	Last Month	High Point	High Point Date	Low Point	Low Point Date
Bush Jr.	8.02	7.93	11.3*	11.3	July, 2008	5.71	October, 2006
Clinton	7.80	10.56	7.29	10.56	January, 1993	5.74	April, 1998
Bush Sr.	10.68	10.07	10.30	12.47	Nov, 1990	9.64	Sept, 1989
Reagan	12.19	19.33	9.72	19.33	Jan, 1981	7.7	Dec, 1986
Carter	16.26	12.72	19.72	21.98	June, 1980	12.6	Apr, 1978
Ford	16.00	16.36	12.66	19.90	Jan, 1975	12.66	Dec, 1976
Nixon	10.57	7.8	17.01	17.01	July, 1974	7.8	Jan, 1969
Johnson	6.77	7.02	8.12	8.19	July, 1968	5.7	Nov, 1965
Kennedy	7.14	8.31	6.82	8.35	July, 1961	6.4	July, 1962
Eisenhower	6.26	3.28	7.96	10.98	Apr, 1958	2.97	July, 1953
Truman	7.88	13.63**	3.45	13.63	Jan, 1948	3.45	Dec, 1952

* July, 2008. This is the most recent month available.
** January, 1948. This is the first month data is available.

Perhaps the most important indicator from this is the change from the beginning of a president's term to the end of his term, looking at this for each of the presidents, and omitting Bush Jr. (because his term isn't over) and Truman (because recording started in the middle of his presidency), we see the following balance:

Democrats: Increase of 3.34 in misery index
Republicans: Increase of 0.81 in misery index

Based on this, the Republicans are actually better for the economy than the Democrats. But, perhaps the most important thing to understand is that on average, neither side is particularly "bad"; rather, it's particular presidencies - especially Nixon and Carter - that had the most harmful impact on this value.

(all numbers available from The United States Misery Index) Sphere: Related Content