When economists think about history, fluctuations often stand out--oil shocks and stagflation in the 1970s, a recession followed by a long expansion in the 1980s, a recession followed by an extraordinary low-unemployment, low-inflation boom in the 1990s.
Go the Web site of the Bureau of Economic Analysis (www.bea.gov) and retrieve the quarterly revision of NIPA Table 1.1.6, real GDP in chained (2005) dollars. Get real GDP for the fourth quarter of 1959, 1969, 1979, 1989, 1999, 2000, and 2010 as well as for the fourth quarter of the most recent year available.
Once this data is obtained, answer the following questions:
Using the real GDP numbers for 1959 and 1969, calculate the decadal growth rate of real GDP for the 1960s. Do the same for the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and the 2000s and for the available years of the most recent decade.
How does growth in the 1970s compare to growth in the later decades? How does growth in the 1960s compare to the later decades? Which decade looks most unusual?