GDP |
GDP, Gross Domestic Product, is a broad measure of the size of the economy. It’s the sum total of the value of goods and services produced for (legal) sale in the country in any given year. But if we want to look at economic growth, its not enough to look at how GDP changes over time. Because prices have a tendency to rise, we have to take into account inflation… so we should look at “real” (i.e., inflation adjusted) GDP, not “nominal” GDP, which doesn’t take into account inflation. And because having more people is often enough to make GDP look bigger, we have to take into account the population. Therefore, when we measure the growth in the economy, we look at the growth in real GDP per capita. This graph shows the annual percentage change in real GDP per capita over the length of each administration. |
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| Real GDP per capita - http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p_ax_fywYILh3BLB0weFhaA |
Recessions |
The economy has a tendency to grow. But sometimes it doesn’t. Those times when the economy is not growing are called recessions. (The official start and end of a recession is determined by the National Bureau of Economic Research (nber.org).) This graph shows the percentage of time each administration spent in recession. |
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| Time in recession - http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p_ax_fywYILjfd0iajk-dMA |
Taxes |
| Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society.” Nobody likes to pay taxes, but we need taxes in order to fund the government. But under some Presidents, the tax collector took more of our personal income, and under other Presidents, the tax collector took less. This graph shows the annual change in the tax bite, the percentage of our personal income the tax collector took from us, over the length of each administration. |
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| Tax bite - http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p_ax_fywYILibhkcFuWjpIQ |
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