America's Money Machine

194 PART III/DEBACLE OF AN IDEA
abundance of new money and credit in the economy had not forestalled
another severe depression in 1937. The wholesale price index (1947-49
= 100) had risen only from 42.1 for 1932 and 42.8 for 1933 to 56.1 in
1937 and thereafter had fallen off to 50.1 in 1939, the latter index representing
an increase of 19 per cent. Moreover, the economy had continued
sluggish. The gross national product, defined as the market value of
goods and services produced by the nation's economy, increased from
$58.5 billion in 1932 to $91.1 billion in 1939, or only to the 1930 level,
and still less than the $104.4 billion of 1929. The achievement is somewhat
better if stated in constant dollars. In terms of 1929 prices, gross
national product increased during the decade from $1°4.4 billion to $1 11
billion. This modest increase hardly matched the increase in population
(which rose from 121.8 million in 1929 to 130.9 million in 1939), so that
gross national product per capita declined in the decade from $857 to
$695 and in constant (1929) dollars from $857 to $847. 7