Spain: Most miserable of countries yet most happy!

Soccer is obviously the perfect game since it can make the most miserable of 16 nations also the happiest after winning the world cup. The misery index was invented by the U.S. economist Arthur Okun in the 1970s. It added unemployment and inflation rates to generate a number somewhat equivalent to wind chill in weather reports but with respect to the state of the economy. In the U.S. the figure peaked in June 1980 while Jimmy CarterJimmy Carter was president.

Moody's has a new Misery Index that combines unemployment with debt rather than inflation since inflation is not a problem in most countries at present whereas debt is.

Moody's Misery Index combines the projected 2010 national unemployment rate with the projected 2010 budget deficit as a percentage of GDP.

Of sixteen countries measured, Spain is the worst with 10% debt and 20 per cent unemployment. Greece is actually fifth after Latvia, Lithuania, and Ireland. The U.S. is 8th at 10.3 per cent debt and 10.4 unemployment. Actually unemployment is a bit lower now. The best country in the group was the Czech republic but France and Germany were also better than the U.S. For more see this site.

1. Spain (10% debt, 20% unemployment)
2. Latvia (8.5%, 19.9%)
3. Lithuania (9.2%, 17.6%)
4. Ireland (12.5%, 14%)
5. Greece (12.2%, 10.2%)
6. England (12.9%, 8.7%)
7. Iceland (10.7%, 10.6%)
8. United States (10.3%, 10.4)
9. Jamaica (9.1%, 11.3%)
10. France (8.3%, 10.2%)
11. Estonia (3%, 15.2%)
12. Portugal (8%, 9%)
13. Hungary (4.3%, 11.3%)
14. Germany (4.3%, 11.3%)
15. Italy (5.3%, 8.7%)
16. Czech Republic (5.5%, 7.9%)