US Economy Is At Depression-Era Levels: This Slow Motion Economic Collapse…Beyond The Obvious — Mountains Of Deficit And Debt. it Is About Polarization” In Washington And Dysfunctional Structure Of The Current US Economy… US GDP Priced In Gold Worst In A Century. Stop The Debt, Spending, & Wars!!!
Investmentwatchblog.com
December 31st, 2012
When Priced in Gold, the US economy is at Depression-Era Levels
sovereignman: As we slide into the end of yet another year in which the nominal price of gold has posted a positive return, I thought it would be interesting to take a look back on history to get a better understanding of where we are today.
It’s obvious that, for many reasons, the size of the global economy is far greater than it was decades ago. We learn in any basic economics course that, over the long run, enhanced productivity and increased technology drive long-term production gains.
Certainly, an economy can produce more widgets if you’re a lean, mean, automated machine… as opposed to a blacksmith with a hammer and forge.
But there are other factors as well. Population growth. Accounting standards. And of course, the continued inflation of the currency. $1 today buys a whole lot less today than it did a century ago, so when comparing, it’s important to find a better standard of measurement.
There are a number of pricing yardsticks we could use… like the cost of a New York City cinema ticket (25 cents in 1935, $20 today). But it would be awkard to calculate GDP in terms of billions of cinema tickets.
Gold is a much more appropriate (though still imperfect) long-term standard of pricing, with its history as a store of value dating back to the ancients.
With this in mind, I collected the appropriate data on gold prices, population, and GDP in the United States since 1791 and plotted GDP per capita denominated in ounces of gold.
The Rest…HERE
