Graph of the Day for March 3, 2010

"The view of a minimalist federal government during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was likely based on a strict interpretation of the Constitution...  The government expanded in the 1930s for two reasons: First, its source of funds had increased with passage of the Sixteenth Amendment.... The second reason was a national ideological shift toward greater government. This shift was reflected by, and perhaps motivated by, the writings of Karl Marx and Henry George in the mid-1800s and later by women's increased participation in the electoral process."

Thomas A. Garrett et al, in Institutions and Government Growth: A Comparison of the 1890s and the 1930s, St. Louis Federal Reserve review article, 2010.


 

Source:  Thomas A. Garrett et al, St. Louis Federal Reserve.


Hoven's Index for March 3, 2010


Per capita real (inflation adjusted) annual federal government spending:

From 1792 to 1929:  $125

In 1930:  $250

In 2007:  $9,200

Federal government spending as % of GDP in 1929:  3%

In 2009:  24%

Federal income taxes (as % of individual income) in 1912:  0%

In 1913:  1% to 7%

In 1932:  4% to 63%

Source:  Thomas A. Garrett et al, St. Louis Federal Reserve.


Graph of the Day Archive.

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