Pictures from Playing with Economagic...
Pictures from playing with Economagic: http://www.economagic.com/:
The last one is my favorite: it shows, in one picture, the seasonal cycle, the business cycle, and the long-term trend in American labor force participation coming from demography and feminism.
Comparing that figure with the one immediately above it shows the extraordinary year-to-year regularity of the seasonal cycle: you could set your watch by it. And the one above that shows the gradual deceleration of productivity growth from 1960-1995 and the acceleration since then. And the one above that provides an interesting look at the Great Moderation of the American business cycle since 1984: recessions come less frequently, and when they do come they involve a smaller increase in economic slack than 1974-75 or 1979-82.
