The Logical End to Capitalism?

[Klaus]

Thanks Sting2!,

as soon as i'm on my home pc (monday) i'll upload the new graph.

Klaus

 

[Klaus]

Sorry, took a little longer than expected ,-)

I changed the graph style - dosn't look as cool as the first one, but it's complicated enough to read it even with this non-fancy style ,-)
2 scales, to the left for the data in %, to the right in USD
I put splines through all graphs to make them a smooth and i put fits (SVD Polynoms 2. grade) (thin lines) through the graphs who were harder to interpret
I discarded some information you provided (real GDP (it's allready there in change in %) and the misery index (as i mentioned before i think it is no good)

Do you think i should mention the change of governments (or any other "big things" like war, colapse of foreign economies..) in the x-axis?
(this time i saved the graph so changes will be easy ,-)

Klaus

 

[STING2]

I think you might want to mention some of the larger wars like, World War II, Korean War 1950-1953, Vietnam War 1965-1972, and of course the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The first 3 had a major effect on unemployment numbers(decreasing them) during those time periods. The Gulf War or Crises in 1990/1991 was a major contributer to the brief 1991 recession in the USA. As far as major economic crises, the oil shock of the 70s and the Asian financial crises might be somethings to list. The Asian financial crises had very little effect on the USA, in fact it kept inflation from rising in the USA while the economy grew at an average of more than 5% a year in the late 90s. I don't have exact numbers for late 90s percent change in GDP, but it was the best peace time economic performance in the history of the USA.

Great chart! I wasn't sure if you could combine all those figures onto one graph.

 

[Klaus]

Okay i added them (look at the graph above)

Interesting that povetry is on a much higher level than unemployment!
Also it looks like the USA has a problem with exports.
Seems like ending a war boosts the GDP - any other things we can see?

Great chart! I wasn't sure if you could combine all those figures onto one graph.

thanks - just possible because you gave us all the raw-data
I'm just curious about weapon exports, can you find any statistics there?

Klaus

p.s. if anyone could contribute some statistical no. it would be verry helpfull (since economic struggles in a period where we don't have data (yet))

 

[STING2]

The problem with the USA's exports is that we have the most open economy on the planet while most other countries economies are much more closed or protected, relative to the USA economy. With all the goods and services we buy from overseas, Americans play a huge role in keeping other countries economies healthy.

 

[STING2]

I think the year in or following a major war like WW II is a major transition period. That explains the huge dips and then rise in GDP as people and factories switch from production and services for the military to production and services for civilian life.

I'm not sure I could dig up military export info for a graph this size. The best I think I could would be 1980-2000. I don't know if I could get even that much data though.

 

[nbcrusader]

With all the goods and services we buy from overseas, Americans play a huge role in keeping other countries economies healthy.

And do we ever get a thank you?

 

[Klaus]

Sting2:

While i agree with your thesis that Americans play a huge role in keeping other countries economies healthy (Germany or Japan would get into serious trouble without the American Market) i dissagree with your 1st statement.
In some points your Market is more open than f.ex. the european one in others its "open" like the chinese wall a few thousand years ago

(last example bush's protection of the Steel industry)

And do we ever get a thank you?

Sure, we all speak english and you don't have to learn a foreign language - that's one of our ways to say thank you

Klaus

 

[STING2]

Bush got it wrong with the steel industry. This protectionism may be good for US steel temporarily, but its bad for the US economy overall.

 

[nbcrusader]

Sure, we all speak english and you don't have to learn a foreign language - that's one of our ways to say thank you

Klaus

Touche