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Stagflation, the worst of both worlds (anemic economic growth and high inflation) brings back less than fond memories of the 1970's, along with the misery index, which is calculated adding the inflation rate to the unemployment rate. Until the 1960's, Keynesian economists had thought that those two economic events couldn't happen at the same time.

Misery Index All Over Again http://www.wiseandfrugalgovernment.blogspot.com/ During the Dark Days of the Carter Administration, through the bleak haze of stagflation (for the under 50 crowd stagflation is: a period of slow economic growth and high unemployment (stagnation) while prices rise (inflation)--sound familiar?) we were told America's best days were past. Not that Jimmy Carter's message was that direct. He was dignified as a Presidenct should be; he used subtle language; he set a good example. When oil prices shot through the roof, Carter was a picture of calm, addressing the nation before the comforting flame of the presidential fireplace, dressed...

Click on the photo of one minute and seventeen seconds, to view the video. Here is video of GOP congressman Dave Camp from Michigan unveiling the "Obama Misery Index," or the OMI - "Oh, My Index." It focuses on the "stunning rise in debt and unemployment."

Thirty years after Jimmy Carter's malaise speech, we return to the days of rising joblessness, an unresponsive economy, deference to dictators, gutting the military and an energy policy tilting at windmills... As history repeats itself on the anniversary of the speech MSNBC's Chris Matthews wrote, we wonder if the "Hardball" host, who has worked for four Democratic politicians, is still getting tingles up his legs. The Democratic Party apparently has learned nothing in the past three decades. Will we see a return of the misery index? The only thing that's different is the sweater.

Did you know Resident Obama (I refuse to refer to him as President since he refuses to release information to show he is eligible) assumed the presidency under the best economic times for a new president since Lyndon Johnson became president? You WERE better off before he took office and you WILL be Far worse off with each passing day under his "Reign". Barack Obama took over an economy that WAS in better shape than any new president has enjoyed in 45 years. The much maligned War spending vs Resident Barack Obama spending get a grip the business's have and...

THIS IS AN EXCERPT. The Obama administration is certain to prolong and deepen the economic recession, with the result that unemployment and inflation will increase, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert contends. ... "Now, as president, Obama has repeatedly blamed the current economic recession on President Bush, alleging his administration 'inherited an economic mess' that will take years to resolve," Corsi wrote. "However, a close look at the table below shows that the Misery Index under President Obama is increasing, as unemployment edges close to 9 percent." The Misery Index, created by economist Arthur Okun, is obtained by adding the unemployment...

While reading reactions to Stanford economist John Taylor’s op-ed in the Financial Times last week, I kept running into the phrase “deficits caused by tax cuts”; one liberal commentator after another wrote that Taylor forfeited his right to complain about the Obama administration’s trillion-dollar deficits when he called for Bush’s tax cuts to be made permanent. Some also criticized Taylor’s arithmetic, arguing that he deliberately or accidentally overstated the rate of inflation it would take to return to a pre-Obama ratio of debt-to-GDP in ten years’ time. And Paul Krugman devoted his Friday column to the subject of Taylor’s stated...

During the 1976 Presidential campaign, Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter frequently referenced something called the "Misery Index" to suggest the Republican incumbent ought not be re-elected due to the index's high level, which was about 13.57% at that time. Carter won the 1976 election, and the Misery Index reached an all-time high of 21.98% under his administration. Just what is a "misery index," and what type of misery index are we facing under an Obama administration? http://conservativebrawler.blogspot.com/2009/03/looming-threat-of-another-carter-esk.html

Iceland's central bank has raised its key interest rate to 18% from 12% as it battles against financial collapse. The rise comes less than two weeks after Iceland cut rates from 15.5%. The central bank governor said the increase was part of its agreement with the International Monetary Fund, from which it borrowed $2bn (£1.3bn). Iceland's prime minister said the country needed another $4bn in loans and had approached the European Central Bank and the US Federal Reserve. Currency slump Central bank governor David Oddsson said that he hoped the rise in rates would only last for a short time...

Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday his remarks were "careless or misinterpreted" when he said the Bush administration has been the "worst in history" for its impact around the world. Speaking on NBC's "Today," Mr. Carter appeared to retreat from a statement he made to Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in which he said: "I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history." The comment was in a story published in the newspaper Saturday. Mr. Carter said Monday that when he made the comment, he was responding to a question...

WASHINGTON, May 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Former President Jimmy Carter, recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, has called on Congress to revisit the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual personnel. In an exclusive statement to Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), Carter says that, "It is my long-held belief that every human being deserves dignity and respect. I often heard that phrase during my years at the United States Naval Academy, I carried it out as Commander-in-Chief, and it continues to animate my human rights work around the globe today. The nation's commitment to human rights...

A question that seems to be on everybody's mind these days turns out to be: Is George Bush the worst President in American history? But how do you judge? Is he the most morally disgusting? The worst mangler of the English language? Ever since the atom bomb was dropped, we've had a whole string of bozos who cannot pronounce the word "nuclear." How much should that count against them? Is John Tyler, our tenth President, a candidate for worst President? Some people who have never heard of this guy have heard of the campaign slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too." Well,...

Faith, Commitments and Mideast Peace My most recent book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, is designed to break the existing stalemate and to prescribe a path to permanent peace for Israelis, with peace and justice for the Palestinians. All the major religions would endorse these goals. » Read the full entry POSTED December 31, 2006 12:15 PM by Jimmy Carter

Breaking with a long tradition, Jimmy Carter runs around the world bad-mouthing President Bush and the USA. He seems to think that those of us who were alive and conscious during his failed presidency have forgotten. I haven’t. I remember 15 to 20% interest rates at the same time that unemployment stood at 7%. I remember inflation at 12%.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said on Monday the Bush administration had eroded America's global influence with its conduct in Iraq and by condoning the torture of terrorism suspects. "They have redefined torture to make it convenient for them," Carter said of the Bush administration in an interview with Reuters. "Things that are unanimously almost or globally assumed to be torture, they claim that this is not torture. I don't think there is any doubt that is what they are doing," said Carter, a Democrat who was president from 1977 to 1981. He has since been a...

Former President Jimmy Carter campaigns on behalf of his son, Jack Carter, at a public library in Henderson, Nev., Monday, Sept. 11, 2006. The former president came to town after his son, who is the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, was hospitalized. (AP Photo/Laura Rauch)

LONDON Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter criticized the British government on Thursday for quickly adopting controversial policies of the Bush administration regarding the Iraq war and the Israel-Hezbollah conflict. "I've been really disappointed in the apparent subservience of the British government's policies related to many of the serious mistakes that have been originated in Washington," Carter said in an interview BBC-TV's news show "Nightline." In the past, Carter said, British governments had used a "strong voice" to help shape joint U.S.-British policies as part of the long-standing special relationship between two of the world's greatest democracies. But under Prime Minister...

New Haven, CT (AHN)-Millionaire businessman and Democratic Ned Lamont said Wednesday the U.S. is weaker because of the war in Iraq backed by rival Sen. Joe Lieberman, and he called for shifting forces to Afghanistan and elsewhere. During a speech at Yale Law School, Lamont said, "We have sacrificed our daughters and sons and our treasure in a war we didn't have to fight. We have ignored the real threats and security needs in the war we should be fighting, the one against the terrorists. ... Senator Lieberman believes that President Bush has it right in Iraq. I believe that...

New Haven, Conn. -- Democrat Ned Lamont said Wednesday the U.S. is weaker because of the war in Iraq backed by rival Sen. Joe Lieberman, and he called for shifting forces to Afghanistan and elsewhere. "We have sacrificed our daughters and sons and our treasure in a war we didn't have to fight," Lamont said. "We have ignored the real threats and security needs in the war we should be fighting, the one against the terrorists. ... Senator Lieberman believes that President Bush has it right in Iraq. I believe that he's dangerously wrong." The Democrat, who upset the three-term...

Jack Kelly: Meet the worst ex-presidentAn odious Iranian will see Jimmy Carter on his U.S. visitSunday, September 03, 2006 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The State Department has granted a visa to Mohammad Khatami, the former president of Iran, to visit the United States.           Mr. Khatami is coming this week chiefly to attend meetings at the United Nations. He also will speak at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard; at a function sponsored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Arlington, Va., and at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. And he will meet with former president...

A few weeks ago, Jimmy Carter gave an interview to the German newspaper, Der Spiegel, mostly on the recent Lebanon conflict. It was classic Jimmy Carter -- at once moralizing and morally confused, ill-informed and preachy -- illustrating why the American people voted him out of office after just one term and the politically partisan Swedish Academy awarded him the Nobel Peace Prize. Take first the former president’s historical illiteracy. "Under all of its [the Bush administration's] predecessors there was a commitment to peace instead of preemptive war," Carter claimed. But is that really so? What about the Spanish-American War...

LONDON, Aug 27 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said the Iraq invasion had subverted the fight against terrorism and instead strengthened al-Qaeda and the recruitment of terrorists, according to a British paper report on Sunday. In an exclusive interview with The Sunday Telegraph newspaper, Carter said that if he had still been president, he would never have considered invading Iraq in 2003. "However, I wouldn't have excluded going into Afghanistan, because I think we had to strike at Al-Qaeda and its leadership," he said. "But then, to a major degree, we abandoned the anti-terrorist effort and went almost...

For an event that would turn a page in American history, former president Jimmy Carter has agreed in principle to host former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami for talks during his visit to the United States starting this week. Carter's term as president was dominated by the rupture in relations after the 1979 Iranian revolution and the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, where 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days until the day he left office. Iranians made the overture for the meeting, and the Carter Center in Atlanta is working on the possible timing, said Phil Wise,...

When I wrote about Jimmy Carter's antics recently, some suggested I should quit wasting my time discussing someone so irrelevant. Well, I'd be happy to comply, except that their assumption is incorrect. What this misguided and increasingly bitter man says, especially on foreign soil, does matter. Don't forget that the Democratic Party leadership embraces Carter, as witnessed by his prominent role in the party's national convention, where he called President Bush -- in no uncertain terms -- a liar. Remember that when you're tempted to think of Carter as just a benign senior statesman. I'll concede Carter has done some...

In an exclusive interview, President Carter made it plain that he sees Mr Blair's lack of leadership as being a key factor in the present crisis in Iraq, which followed the 2003 invasion - a pre-emptive move he said he would never have considered himself as president. "We now have a situation where America is so unpopular overseas that even in countries like Egypt and Jordan our approval ratings are less than five per cent. It's a shameful and pitiful state of affairs and I hold your British Prime Minister to be substantially responsible for being so compliant and subservient."...

August 21, 2006   The Honorable Jimmy Carter The Carter Center 453 Freedom Parkway Atlanta, Georgia 30307 Dear Mr. President: I just read the transcript of your interview with the German magazine, Der Spiegel, in which you accuse Israel of launching an “unjustified attack on Lebanon.”   Even after the interviewer reminded you that Israel was the first to get attacked, you charged Israel with lacking “any legal or moral justification for their massive bombing of the entire nation of Lebanon.” As someone who served in the White House as a spokesman for a President, I am reluctant to criticize...

In the history of any nation there are high and low points. There are events and people that make the nation proud or, frankly, cause it shame and embarrassment. I, for years, felt one of our proudest moments was Ronald Wilson Reagan telling Gorbachev, ''Tear down this wall.'' I always thought the shame of slavery would forever be our low point. That was right up until Jimmy Carter took office in 1977 and again last week when he spewed his hate-filled venom against his country and its president in Der Spiegel magazine. Jimmy, you are a disgrace to our nation....

JIMMY CARTER – A BRAIN IN NEUTRAL - REDUX © by Norman Liebmann [Note: Had it been anticipated that Georgia would one day produce a Jimmy Carter, Abe Lincoln would have the first one to endorse that state’s secession from the Union. Carter has made much of his barn building for rustics most of whom think a toilet is an indoor wishing well. Carter’s enterprise, such as it is, does not redeem his treachery, although one could hardly foretell such duplicity could be conjured up by that Tobacco Road mentality. In the light of Carter’s recent re-eruptions of treason and...

There are so many sad things to write about today but we all need the cathartic diversion of a true laughingstock, so let us talk about Jimmy Carter. Carter, by all biological indications, is still alive, so we may speak of him ill. Very, very, incurably ill. From Jan. 20, 1977, through Jan. 20, 1981, our nation endured an unpleasant, aberrant, tragicomic episode. In the somewhat confused political atmosphere subsequent to the resignation of Richard Nixon, the electorate succumbed to the blandishments of a folksy Georgia governor who espoused a form of bland centrism. The theory, presumably, was that boredom...

President Bush has pursued an "erroneous policy" that has fostered violence in the Middle East, said former President Jimmy Carter, who brokered the historic Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt. "In my opinion, maybe the worst ally Israel has had in Washington has been the George W. Bush administration, which hasn't worked to bring a permanent peace to Israel," Carter said Friday during a stop in West Michigan. Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, were here as part of a fundraiser for their son, Jack Carter, who is seeking a U.S. Senate seat in Nevada. The $500-a-person event, attended by...

CAIMITO, Cuba (Reuters) - They do not come to Cuba for the beaches and tropical mystique that draw more than 2 million other visitors each year. Instead they come to spend their vacations working in the countryside under a blazing sun, eating rice and beans and sharing a room without air-conditioning or toilet with seven others. They are so-called revolutionary tourists who arrive each year from about 50 countries for a "total immersion" in one of the world's few remaining socialist countries. "I call it a revolutionary vacation. I dedicate my free time to doing something concrete for the Cuban...

The longest day of my short life occurred a week and a half ago. At some point while I slept in Pullman, the sun rose Thursday morning. That evening, I watched the gray sky fade from the top of the Space Needle in Seattle. On the road back to Pullman, the early morning rays lit up the sky again on the hill down into Washtucna. It was a long road trip. What was the purpose of this borderline insane trip? Former President Jimmy Carter, of course. Eighteen members of the WSU Young Democrats had an important meeting with the man...

In his acceptance speech for the 1976 Democratic nomination, Jimmy Carter said a memorable phrase: The income tax system, he said, “is a disgrace to the human race.” It is certainly the best rhyme of Carter’s presidency, and it is still apt, because it describes Carter himself to a T. After flunking as president, Jimmy Carter has now become an unalloyed embarassment. As president Carter almost managed to drive the US economy off the road, with the highest combined inflation and unemployment rate in a half century. Even worse, it was Carter who brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power, by refusing...

SEATTLE -- Former President Jimmy Carter criticized the war in Iraq on Wednesday, urging a troop drawdown as the United States enters its fourth year of conflict in Iraq. "It was a completely unnecessary war. It was an unjust war," said Carter, the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize winner. "It was initiated on the basis of false pretenses. All of those are true, but we can't just pre-emptively withdraw."

HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) -- Former President Jimmy Carter criticized the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping program Monday and said he believes the president has broken the law. "Under the Bush administration, there's been a disgraceful and illegal decision - we're not going to the let the judges or the Congress or anyone else know that we're spying on the American people," Carter told reporters. "And no one knows how many innocent Americans have had their privacy violated under this secret act." Carter made the remarks at a union hall near Las Vegas, where his oldest son, Jack Carter, announced his candidacy...

CNN) -- Hamas deserves to be recognized by the international community, and despite the group's militant history, there is a chance the soon-to-be Palestinian leaders could turn away from violence, former President Jimmy Carter said Wednesday. Carter, who monitored last week's Palestinian elections in which Hamas handily toppled the ruling Fatah, added that the United States should not cut off aid to the Palestinian people, but rather funnel it through third parties like the U.N. "If you sponsor an election or promote democracy and freedom around the world, then when people make their own decision about their leaders, I think...

Georgia lawmakers are proposing a resolution making February 6th Ronald Reagan Day, in honor of the 40th U.S. President. But according to Plains residents, there's just one small problem with that. Former President Jimmy Carter, the only President from Georgia, doesn't even have his own day. We got some strange reactions we got when residents found out that the 39th President of the United States, and their hometown hero, doesn't have his own day in the State of Georgia. Jimmy Carter was born and raised in Plains. From his old high school, to City Hall, everyone we spoke to had...

CARTER UNMASKED "Jimmy Carter's reputation for idealism has been one of the great swindles of American politics for two decades." -- The New Republic The Real Jimmy Carter by Steven F. Hayward The Nobel Prize is just the beginning: Jimmy Carter is enjoying a new day in the sun, with left-wing historians taking a "fresh look" at his disastrous presidency and trying to bamboozle Americans into thinking that it was actually successful. This ongoing Saint Jimmy campaign would be laughable if it weren't part of a larger strategy to whitewash the records of failed Democrats and justify Carter's outsize influence...

Take me to your leader: Former President Jimmy Carter told GQ magazine for a January article that he saw a UFO in 1969 in southwest Georgia as he was preparing to speak at a Lions Club meeting. He recalled that it was a bright light that got ''closer and closer to us,'' but then ''changed color to blue,'' then to red, then back to white, and then ''receded into the distance.'' However, he said, ''I've never believed it came from Mars.''

It's been said that the best way to get a heated discussion going is to bring up one of three subjects: religion, politics or sex. In his book "Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis," former President Carter does all three - sometimes simultaneously. Where is America going wrong - or right? Carter has many strong opinions, and although he says that he is a major advocate of separation of church and state, this book weighs in with a bent that's more religious than not. It's no secret that Carter was a spiritual sort before, during and after his years in...

As President, Jimmy Carter may not have consulted an astrologer to decide the details of his schedule - á la Nancy Reagan directing her husband's busy days. But Ronald Reagan's predecessor did once employ a woman in a trance to locate a downed government plane in Africa. "We had a plane go down in the Central African Republic. A twin-engine plane. Small plane. And we couldn't find it," the 81-year-old 39th President reveals to GQ magazine's Wil S. Hylton. "So we oriented satellites that were going around the Earth every 90 minutes to fly over that spot where we thought...

NEW YORK (AP) - Former President Jimmy Carter supports the move by Democrats yesterday to force an update on the investigation into pre-Iraq-war intelligence. Carter says claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction were "manipulated, at least" to mislead the American people. He says he thinks the decision to go to war was the "culmination" of a long-term plan to attack Iraq that resulted from the first President Bush not taking out Saddam. Carter says President Bush should tell the American people "the truth" about why he decided to go to war.

Jimmy Carter aspired to make Government "competent and compassionate," responsive to the American people and their expectations. His achievements were notable, but in an era of rising energy costs, mounting inflation, and continuing tensions, it was impossible for his administration to meet these high expectations. Carter, who has rarely used his full name--James Earl Carter, Jr.--was born October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia. Peanut farming, talk of politics, and devotion to the Baptist faith were mainstays of his upbringing. Upon graduation in 1946 from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, Carter married Rosalynn Smith. The Carters have three sons,...

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 23 2005 Five years after the controversial 2000 presidential election, ex-President Jimmy Carter now says he's certain Al Gore defeated George W. Bush. "Well I would say that in the year 2000, the country failed abysmally in the presidential election process," Carter told a panel Monday at American University in Washington, D.C. "There's no doubt in my mind that Al Gore was elected president." Those in attendance broke out in applause for that statement. "[Gore] received the most votes nationwide, and in my opinion, he also received the most votes in Florida," Carter continued. "And the decision was...

Ronald Reagan won because he won the only debate. He won it not because of Carter's debate performance ("I had a discussion with my daughter, Amy, the other day, before I came here, to ask her what the most important issue was. She said she thought nuclear weaponry ... "), but only because Reagan had Carter's briefing book. And Reagan had it because this columnist gave it to him.

Watching the Economy Crumble Paul Craig Roberts Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2005 The United States continues its descent into the Third World, but you would never know it from news reports of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' July payroll jobs release. The media give a bare-bones jobs report that is misleading. The public heard that 207,000 jobs were created in July. If not a reassuring figure, at least it is not a disturbing one. On the surface, things look to be pretty much OK. It is when you look into the composition of these jobs that the concern arises. Of the...

The United States continues its descent into the Third World, but you would never know it from news reports of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' July payroll jobs release. The media give a bare-bones jobs report that is misleading. The public heard that 207,000 jobs were created in July. If not a reassuring figure, at least it is not a disturbing one. On the surface, things look to be pretty much OK. It is when you look into the composition of these jobs that the concern arises. Of the new jobs, 26,000 (about 13 percent) are tax-supported government jobs. That...

ATLANTA - Former President Jimmy Carter on Tuesday called for the United States to shut down its Guantanamo Bay prison to demonstrate the country's commitment to protecting human rights. "Despite President George W. Bush's bold reminder that America is determined to promote freedom and democracy around the world, the U.S. continues to suffer terrible embarrassment and a blow to our reputation as a champion of human rights because of reports concerning abuses of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo," Carter said in a news conference following the close of a two-day human rights conference at his Atlanta center. In addition...

<p>Former President Jimmy Carter has been linked with a key figure in the U.N.'s oil-for-food scandal by the group leading the nationwide effort to evict the United Nations from American soil and halt U.S. funding of the U.N.</p>

Good evening. I want to have a frank talk with you tonight about our most serious domestic problem. That problem is inflation. Inflation can threaten all the economic gains we've made, and it can stand in the way of what we want to achieve in the future. This has been a long-time threat. For the last 10 years, the annual inflation rate in the United States has averaged 6-1/2 percent. And during the 3 years before my inauguration, it had increased to an average of eight percent. Inflation has, therefore, been a serious problem for me ever since I became...