America's Most Miserable Cities

Forbes magazine is known for their top ten lists, and this one takes some whacks at some of the better known U.S. cities:

Lousy weather, long commutes, rising unemployment and high sales tax. Welcome home. Misery was up around the country in 2008. Market meltdowns, bank blowups and bailouts and cratering home prices often overshadowed the incredibly positive stories of 2008 like the Beijing Summer Games and the historic election of Barack Obama.

The highly watched Misery Index spiked as the unemployment rate plus the inflation rate surged to 9.6 in 2008, up from 7.5 the previous year. It was the highest annual level since 1993. Our own Forbes Misery Measure saw a shuffling of the deck among the top 10 cities, with five new candidates getting a failing grade this year. -- Read on

Top Ten List
1. Stockton, CA
2. Memphis, TN
3. Chicago, IL
4. Cleveland, OH
5. Modesto, CA
6. Flint, MI
7. Detroit, MI
8. Buffalo, NY
9. Miami, FL
10. St. Louis, MO