Misery Index (economic)
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During the Presidential campaign of 1976 campaign, Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter made frequent references to the Misery Index. The term -- coined by Chicago Economist Robert Barro in the 1970s -- simply adds together the rates of inflation and unemployment, and by the summer of 1976 the Misery Index was 13.57%. Carter stated that no man responsible for giving the country a misery index that high had a right to even ask to be President. Carter, of course, won the 1976 election. However, by 1980, when President Carter was running for re-election against Ronald Reagan, the Misery Index had reached an all-time high of 21.98%. Carter lost the election to Reagan.
The lowest index since 1948 was 2.97%, in August 2001.