You pays your money...

...or you saves it.

Second graph from yesterday:

Graph #1: Savings relative to Circulatings, 1915-1932

Here's the picture through 1936, the year Keynes published his General Theory:

Graph #2: Savings relative to Circulatings, 1915-1936

Here's how the picture looks through 1945, the year Franklin D. Roosevelt died:

Graph #3: Savings relative to Circulatings, 1915-1945

Here's how it looks for the full data available in the Historical Statistics, 1915-1970:

Graph #4: Savings relative to Circulatings, 1915-1970

Here's how it looks after combining Graph #3 with the numbers from FRED:

Graph #5: Savings relative to Circulatings, 1915-2010

Pretty good mis-match between the old and new numbers, but I can't help that.

The black line and gray shading way down low on Graph #4 show the same numbers as Graph #3, in proportion to the FRED numbers.

Those four FRED lines -- blue, red, green, and orange -- follow the same color scheme as the first graph from yesterday. Which one to use? Your choice. They all go up.


One of the big problems with policy is that it encourages savings. We think it wise to find ways to "enrich" people by enabling them to pile up claims to enjoyment without them ever intending to enjoy those claims.