Misery Index.
“In 2008, we elected Jimmy Carter on steroids”
By GOPExile,

The day after the election of Barack Hussein Obama, I made a comment about the election to a friend at work. I said, “We have elected Jimmy Carter on steroids.” I learned about Carter first hand. Carter was elected President the year I graduated college and entered the world of adulthood, and he taught me how an economically illiterate president can destroy an economy. Carter also taught me how the world becomes a more dangerous place when America is militarily weak.

When I graduated from Ohio State University in 1975, Republicans had severely fallen out of favor during the last three years I attended OSU. Richard Nixon was the poster child of corruption and abusive power. He tried to eliminate inflation with wage and price controls. Gerald Ford was a moderate Republican like John McCain and he could not inspire confidence in his ability to lead the nation in the election. Gerola Ford coined the slogan WIN, whip inflation now, and had not success dropping inflation.  

Jimmy Carter was swept into office as the new hope and change candidate. I believed in Carter’s presidency. Jimmy Carter inspired the same feelings of “hope and change” in 1976 that all those “OBAMA! OBAMA! OBAMA!”  chanting college kids felt in 2008.

The Jimmy and Rosalind Carter held hands and walked down Pennsylvania Avenue on inauguration day. They inspired feelings of tremendous euphoria in 1976. Jimmy Carter was going to fix the economy through new government programs to employ the jobless. We had just finished a war and the federal budget was in deficit. Politicians of both parties had junked up the tax code to reward some behavior while punishing others and spending tax money with reckless abandon. The real effects of the “Johnson War on Poverty” coupled with the expenses from the Vietnam War had just started to take effect. Neither Republican nor Democrat presidents prior to 1980 had a clue how to improve employment and decrease inflation. The Federal Reserve had inflated the currency to pay for deficit spending and the country was hit with runaway inflation.

The misery index was initiated by economist Arthur Okun, an adviser to President Lyndon Johnson in the 1960’s. It is simply the unemployment rate added to the inflation rate. It is assumed that both a higher rate of unemployment and a worsening of inflation both create economic and social costs for a country. A combination of rising inflation and more people out of work implies a deterioration in economic performance and a rise in the misery index.

Misery Index = Unemployment rate + Inflation rate

The Carter government signed into law all sorts of federal government spending programs, Income Tax gimmicks to ease the energy crisis and enacted changes to the tax code to pay for them. Four years of Jimmy Carter taught may Americans an expanded federal government was not the answer to an expanding economy and a bright future for American prosperity.  Jimmy Carter had cut military spending while increasing domestic spending.  Carter believed in appeasing our enemies and removed our support from the Shaw of Iran. The Mullahs overthrew their government, took our diplomats hostage and Carter’s defense department was too weak to rescue our hostages. One good thing Carter did before leaving office was to appoint Paul Volcker, a Democrat, Chairman of the Federal Reserve in August, 1979.  Volker sent the economy into a recession by increasing interest rates to clamp down the runaway inflation.  Eighteen percent interest rates were common for anyone wanting a home loan.

Ronald Reagon entered office in 1981, facing double digit unemployment and double digit inflation. When the Federal Reserve increased interest rates, the economy also went into a deep recession.  Reagon entered office with a confidence in the greatness of this country, he had believed government was too big, too expensive, too intrusive and was crippling the private economy. He set out to dismantle as much federal bureaucracy as he could and shrink the size of government.

Reagon believed in peace through strength. Reagon also believed we had to rebuild our military and be strong against Communism. He rebuilt the military. Reagon believed the tax code was too complex. Reagon cut federal spending as much as a Democrat legislature would permit, he streamlined the tax code by eliminating numerous special deductions and reduced the highest tax rate from 70% to 28% and reduced taxes across the board for everyone. Private economy took off and began an expansion jobs that has lasted for next twenty years. The USSR tore down the Berlin Wall as much a result of American growing economic strength as because of America’s increasing military might.

Jimmy Carter was a failed presidency because he did not understand the power of reducing government and letting the private economy enjoy the blessings of capitalism. He was really the worst president of the past thirty years because he believed he had to control everything from the oval office. The 2008 election proved that many Americans have forgotten the economic lessons of Jimmy Carter thirty years so they could not appreciate the unrealistic promises made by Barack Obama. Carter and Obama are birds of a feather. Both believe in the power of the state to rule over every one and make all economic decisions from a central command, with central planning CZARS making decisions for all people and businesses. This new generation has much to learn from Jimmy Carter’s failure and from Ronald Reagon’s success. No one can replicate the personal charisma of Ronald Reagon but his principles are still worth learning. Let’s hope a new generation of conservative emerges who really understands conservative principles of freedom and can lead us out of this mess.

My hope is that in 2010, conservatives will sweep into Washington and reverse some of the incredible waste of 2008 -2009 congress. If this does not happen, we can fully expect to learn first hand how the Misery Index will feel. I fully expect hyper-inflation and massive unemployment if we do not change our ways. If you’ve read this blog post so far, my warning is this:

• PREPARE FOR THE GREAT OBAMA DEPRESSION
• GET OUT OF DEBT,
• PLANT A GARDEN
• LEARN TO CAN YOU OWN FOOD
• BUY GOLD IF YOU POSSIBLY CAN