We have assembled a lot of economic and political data for the years of the Great Depression from 1929 to 1939 and we want you to know where we got it.
Heres the ticker that we run at the top of each year. Following the ticker well break the data down and give links to the source of each item of data
The Office of Management and Budget publishes Gross Domestic Product Data from 1930 to present.
GDP: Budget of the United States GovernmentTable 1.2 -- Summary of Receipts, Outlays, and Surpluses or Deficits (-) as Percentages of GDP: 1930 - 2012
UC Davis maintains US Gross Domestic Product Data from 1790 to present.
The United States Bureau of Economic Analysis maintains Gross Domestic Product Data from 1929 to present
GDP: Bureau of Economic Analysis: National Economic Accounts
GDP Data and Deflator - 1929 to present: Current Dollar and "Real" GDP (xls)
GDP Change - 1929 to present: Percent Change from Preceding Period (xls)
M2 Money Supply:
The US Census Bureau maintains a time series, X-415: Money Stock,
from 1867 to 1970.
Bicentennial Edition: Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970
X. Financial Markets and Institutions: Series X-415; p.992 (pdf)
Also, St.Louis Federal Reserve Bank maintains a monthly M2 time series from 1959 to present.
M2 Money Stock (M2SL)
Dow Jones Industrials: Yahoo Finance Daily Prices
Prices shown are the opening price for the first business day of the year and the closing price for the last business day of the year.
Federal Spending:
The US Census Bureau has this table of federal spending from 1900 to 2003.
Table No. HS--47. Federal Government -- Receipts and Outlays: 1900 to 2003 (pdf)
Top Marginal Rate in Federal Income Tax:
Historical federal income tax rates since 1913 are given in Bicentennial Edition: Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970
Chapter Y: Government, p.1095 (pdf)
Consumer Price Index:
The US Census Bureau maintains a time series, E-135: Consumer Price Indexes (all items) from 1800 to 1970.
Bicentennial Edition: Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970
E. Prices and Price Indexes: Series E-135; p.211 (pdf)
Federal Unemployment Rate:
This early unemployment data comes from a website that claims to get its information
from Out of Work, Unemployment and Government in Twentieth-Century America
by Richard K. Vedder and Lowell E. Gallaway [Holmes & Meier, 1993]
Historical Statistics and Analysis on Unemployment, Poverty, Urbanization, etc., in the United States
United States Senate Election Results from Wikipedia:
U.S. Senate Elections
United States House of Representatives Election Results from Wikipedia:
U.S. House Elections
Seventy years ago the leaders of both US political parties turned away from the policies that had created an economic powerhouse we call the Roaring Twenties. For ten long years Americans suffered through wrenching economic dislocations: deflation, inflation, a four-year economic contraction, endless unemployment, mindless political experiments, and ruthless attacks on businessmen for political gain as their leaders stayed Stuck on Stupid.
Today, after a twenty-five year economic boom, Americans are once more faced with a political elite that wants to monkey with success. It wants to raise tax rates. It wants to restrict trade. It wants to increase government power.
Its time to look back and remind ourselves how it came to be, starting in 1929, that America got itself Stuck on Stupid. Otherwise it could happen again.
1929-1939: A Decade that will live in stupidity.
usstuckonstupid
presented by Christopher Chantrill
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