Sunday, May 17, 2009

Update of a Bad Picture

The 1930s were different from today in many ways. But its hard to see those differences in this chart of monthly industrial production. In the 1930s, this index of industrial production hit a low of 48.1 in July 1932.

Industry is a smaller share of our economy now than then. Unlike 1929, 2008 industrial production was falling even before October, but much of that reflects the fact that 2008 began in recession and 1929 did not.

No comments: