In the Company of Misery
Steven L. Taylor
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Tuesday, March 3, 2015
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5 comments
Via Bloomberg: The 15 Most Miserable Economies in the World.
Misery, as in the misery index (“unemployment rate + change in the consumer price index = misery”):
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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Haiti isn’t on the list? No African countries?
List seems suspect for that reason.
Two casual observations:
– This is pretty much a made up statistic.
– Bloomberg failed to note either the 15 least “miserable” countries, or the position of the US. One is allowed to assume that those would not support Bloomberg’s prejudices.
I’m guessing this chart cuts out all those countries whose unemployment rate or price indices, essentially, can’t fall any farther–DRC, Somalia, etc.
@stonetools: It is likely that the governments of many of those countries simply do not track one or the other metric.
@stonetools: I guess South Africa isn’t part of, uh, Africa?