What's the misery index?

# Stuff You Should Know - The Misery Index

Josh and Chuck dive into the economic tool that measures human unhappiness: the Misery Index. Starting with economist Arthur Okun's simple but clever formula of combining unemployment and inflation rates, the guys explore how this metric became a surprisingly accurate predictor of presidential elections and economic well-being. They trace the index through American history—from the stagflation crisis of the 1970s to modern attempts to refine the measurement with additional factors like housing costs and food prices—all while debating whether any economic formula can really capture the messy reality of how people actually feel about their wallets.