by David Stockman
Daily Reckoning
Between 1870 and 1913, the real GDP of the United States — as best they can estimate it — rose from $20 billion to $131 billion (1958$).
That gain of 4.3% per annumcompounded over 43 years is the highest real GDP growth on record for a continuous equivalent period of time. But here’s the wonder of it…
During that golden age of growth and prosperity, the U.S. had no central bank and not even one episode of fiscal stimulus!
If you allow for population growth from 39 million in 1870 to 97 million by 1913 and look at the U.S. economy on a per capita basis, the gains in those dark days before the invention of “stimulus” were pretty robust.