The Misery Index: What It Measures and What It Signals | The Growth Playbook

The Misery Index adds the inflation rate to the unemployment rate, and by Alan Beaulieu's read it stood at 7.94% in September, above pre-COVID levels and rising since April 2025. In this episode of The Growth Playbook, Kim Clark and her dad, economist Alan Beaulieu, walk through where the index came from, why it has tracked so closely with election results, and why he argues that which party controls Washington matters far less to the economy than most people think. Then they turn it toward business: why consumers in the lower half of incomes need a plan of their own, why cash is tight in B2B too, and how breaking your revenue out by product line (and cutting what Alan calls the Basset Hound) can protect your margins going into 2027. Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:08 Welcome to The Growth Playbook 0:38 Carter, Reagan and the Misery Index 1:43 What the Misery Index measures 2:46 Where it stands today 3:34 Why it tracks with elections 4:31 Why party control matters less than you think 5:49 Planning for consumers who are hurting 6:54 Cash is tight in B2B too 8:41 The Basset Hound: cutting your long tail 10:01 Break your revenue out by product line 11:41 Work on the business, not in it About the hosts The Growth Playbook is a conversation between Kim Clark, revenue coach at V2A Marketing, and her dad, economist Alan Beaulieu, about where the economy is going and how leaders should respond. Have a topic you want us to tackle? Leave it in the comments or send us a message on LinkedIn. This episode is general education and commentary, not financial or investment advice. #Economy #Leadership #TheGrowthPlaybook