Friday, August 22, 2008

Misery index going up globally

Bloomberg calculates for a large number of countries the misery index which is the combination of the the inflation and unemployment rate. Out of the 57 ccountries tested, 52 or 91% of the countries have misery levels which are at the same or higher than last year. Only five countries have seen decreases in their numbers. The low for switzerland at a combination of 5.4%. The high is in Venezuela at 41.3%. The nex highest is in South Africa at 35.2% through a combinaiton of 12% inflation and 23% unemployment.

We don't expect these numbers to fall by year-end. There may be a slight decline in inflation from the fall in commodity prices but we should see an increase in unemployment over the same period. The world economies are starting to move together.

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