Stress Indices

The first chart is the St. Louis Fed Stress Index and the three-month S&P 500 volatility. 

St. Louis Stress Index (blue) and VIX (red).

The second chart is a new one I am not too familiar with: the CredAbility Consumer Distress Index for Household Budget.  It has a graded scale, much like grade-school grading scales: 90+ A, 89-80 B, 79-70 C, 69-60 D, and below a 60 is an F.  Currently, we're somewhere between needing to pull an all nighter to "don't worry about it, you can still get two D's and graduate"


Household budget stress index.

I set the timeline for the two charts from 5-years ago to present simply because I can't get over that it's been 5-years since the Great Recession began (though you'll see the second chart is based on quarterly data).