measuring the business cycle(2)

A great variety of economic "time series" shown together for comparison.Note the pervasive common pulse of the business cycle;the recessions of 1948-1929,1953-1954,1957-1958, 1960-1961, 1969-1970, 1973-1975 are shown as shaded areas.These fluctuations show up in production,unemployment,incomes,and even such particular series as stock-price and building. Moreover,if data had been included on such noneconomic matters as marriages,births,suicides,and malnutrition,we could have seen the heavy hand of the business cycle in them too.
Even political elections follow the business cycle:in slumps,the ins go out.Thus,the 1960 Eisenhower recession helped elect president Kennedy,just as the Hoover depression of the 1930s helped elect Franklin Roosevelt.
Let us first stick to the facts and statistics of the business cycle.Later,we can attempt to devise hypotheses and explanatory theories to account for the facts.