Data from Robert Schiller’s Irrational Exuberance and federal government data. Sue, who is a Goddess of Spreadsheets, compiled the data and created the spreadsheet. (You can download the full spreadsheet from Drop.io)
Industrial production and GDP dropped off a cliff in 1930 as compared to 1929, while 2008 compared to 2007 is minor in comparison. Housing prices though took a huge tumble in 2007-2008 while during the Depression they dropped, but not nearly as severely.
So far, we are nowhere near what the Depression was like. Let’s hope it stays that way.
I found this encouraging– until I realized that the reason our industrial capacity hasn’t dropped that much is because we don’t have that much to drop. In 1929 we had a huge trade surplus– we manufactured more than we consumed– but these days we have a significant trade deficit.
Today, China is our industrial capacity– and it HAS dropped, as you note elsewhere.