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Business Statistics of the United States 2004 9 Sub Edition
Cornelia J. Strawser Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Cornelia J. Strawser, Mary Meghan Ryan, Mark Siegal, Katherine
A. Debrandt
ISBN(s): 9781417502431, 1417502436
Edition: 9 Sub
File Details: PDF, 2.33 MB
Year: 2004
Language: english
Business
Statistics
of the United States
Ninth Edition, 2004
Business
Statistics
of the United States
Ninth Edition, 2004
Editor
Cornelia J. Strawser

Associate Editors
Mary Meghan Ryan
Mark Siegal
Katherine A. DeBrandt

BERNAN PRESS
© 2004 Bernan Press, an imprint of Bernan Associates, a division of the Kraus Organization Limited.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior
written permission of the copyright holder. Bernan does not claim copyright in U.S. government
information.

ISBN: 0-89059-858-4

ISSN: 1086-8488

Printed by Automated Graphic Systems, Inc., White Plains, MD, on acid-free paper that meets the
American National Standards Institute Z39-48 standard.

2005 2004 4 3 2 1

BERNAN PRESS
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email: [email protected]
www.bernanpress.com
 CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
ARTICLE—“EXPANDED HISTORICAL STATISTICS GIVE PERSPECTIVE ON
GROWTH, WAR, INFLATION, AND UNEMPLOYMENT” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
SPECIAL NOTES—CURRENT STATISTICAL ISSUES AND PITFALLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiv
GENERAL NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxviii

PART A: THE U.S. ECONOMY .................................................1

CHAPTER 1: NATIONAL INCOME AND PRODUCT AND CYCLICAL INDICATORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

TABLES
1-1: Gross Domestic Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1-2: Real Gross Domestic Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1-3: Chain-Type Quantity Indexes for Gross Domestic Product and Domestic Purchases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1-4: Chain-Type Price Indexes for Gross Domestic Product and Domestic Purchases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1-5: Implicit Price Deflators for Gross Domestic Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1-6: Final Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1-7: Gross Domestic Product, Gross and Net National Product, and National Income . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1-8: National Income by Type of Income . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1-9: Gross Product and Domestic Income of Nonfinancial Corporate Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1-10: Per Capita Product and Income and U.S. Population . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1-11: Composite Indexes of Economic Activity and Selected Index Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Notes and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

CHAPTER 2: INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION AND CAPACITY UTILIZATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

TABLES
2-1: Industrial Production Indexes by Market Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2-2: Industrial Production Indexes by NAICS Industry Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2-3: Capacity Utilization by NAICS Industry Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Notes and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

CHAPTER 3: INCOME DISTRIBUTION AND POVERTY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

TABLES
3-1: Median Household Income . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3-2: Median Family Income and Median Earnings by Sex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3-3: Shares of Aggregate Income Received by Each Fifth and Top 5 Percent of Households . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3-4: Shares of Aggregate Income Received by Each Fifth and Top 5 Percent of Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3-5: Average Poverty Thresholds by Family Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3-6: Poverty Status by Type of Family, Race and Hispanic Origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3-7: Poverty Status of Persons by Sex and Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3-8: Poverty Status of Persons Inside and Outside Metropolitan Areas, and Persons
In and Near Poverty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3-9: Poor Persons 16 Years and Over by Work Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3-10: Median Household Income and Poverty Rates for Persons, Based on Alternative
Definitions of Income . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3-11: Median Income and Poverty Rates by State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Notes and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

v
vi BUSINESS STATISTICS OF THE UNITED STATES (BERNAN PRESS)

CHAPTER 4: CONSUMER INCOME AND SPENDING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

TABLES
4-1: Personal Income by Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4-2: Disposition of Personal Income . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4-3: Personal Consumption Expenditures by Major Type of Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4-4: Chain-Type Quantity Indexes for Personal Consumption Expenditures by Major Type of Product . . . . . . . . . 66
4-5: Personal Consumption Expenditures by Type of Expenditure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Notes and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

CHAPTER 5: SAVING AND INVESTMENT; BUSINESS SALES AND INVENTORIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

TABLES
5-1: Gross Saving and Investment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5-2: Gross Private Fixed Investment by Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5-3: Real Gross Private Fixed Investment by Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
5-4: Chain-Type Quantity Indexes for Private Fixed Investment by Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
5-5: Current-Cost Net Stock of Fixed Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
5-6: Chain-Type Quantity Indexes for Net Stock of Fixed Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5-7: Inventories to Sales Ratios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5-8: Manufacturing and Trade Sales and Inventories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
5-9: Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales and Inventories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5-10: Capital Expenditures, 1996–2001 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5-11: Capital Expenditures for Structures and Equipment for Companies With Employees
by Major NAICS Industry Sector, 1998–2001 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Notes and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

CHAPTER 6: GOVERNMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
TABLES
6-1: Federal Government Current Receipts and Expenditures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
6-2: State and Local Government Current Receipts and Expenditures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
6-3: Government Consumption Expenditures and Gross and Net Investment by Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
6-4: Chain-Type Quantity Indexes for Government Consumption Expenditures and Gross
Investment by Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
6-5: National Defense Consumption Expenditures and Gross and Net Investment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
6-6: Real National Defense Consumption Expenditures and Gross Investment by Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
6-7: Federal Government Receipts and Outlays by Fiscal Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
6-8: Federal Government Debt by Fiscal Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
6-9: Government Employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
6-10: State Government Current Receipts and Expenditures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
6-11: Local Government Current Receipts and Expenditures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
6-12: State Government Consumption Expenditures and Gross Investment by Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
6-13: Local Government Consumption Expenditures and Gross Investment by Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Notes and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

CHAPTER 7: U.S. FOREIGN TRADE AND FINANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

TABLES
7-1: Foreign Transactions in the National Income and Product Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
7-2: Chain-Type Quantity Indexes for NIPA Foreign Transactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
7-3: Chain-Type Price Indexes for NIPA Foreign Transactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
7-4: Exports and Imports of Selected NIPA Types of Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
7-5: Chain-Type Quantity Indexes for Exports and Imports of Selected NIPA Types of Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
7-6: U.S. International Transactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
7-7: International Investment Position of the United States at Year-End . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
7-8: U.S. Exports and Imports of Goods and Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
7-9: U.S. Exports of Goods by End-Use and Advanced Technology Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
7-10: U.S. Imports of Goods by End-Use and Advanced Technology Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
 CONTENTS vii

7-11: U.S. Exports and Imports of Goods by Principal End-Use Category

in Constant Dollars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
7-12: U.S. Exports of Goods by Selected Regions and Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
7-13: U.S. Imports of Goods by Selected Regions and Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
7-14: U.S. Exports of Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
7-15: U.S. Imports of Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
7-16: U.S. Export and Import Price Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Notes and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

CHAPTER 8: PRICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

TABLES
8-1: Consumer Price Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
8-2: Producer Price Indexes and Purchasing Power of the Dollar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
8-3: Producer Price Indexes by Commodity Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
8-4: Prices Received and Paid by Farmers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Notes and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

CHAPTER 9: EMPLOYMENT COSTS, PRODUCTIVITY, AND PROFITS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

TABLES
9-1: Employment Cost Indexes—Total Compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
9-2: Employment Cost Indexes—Wages and Salaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
9-3: Productivity and Related Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
9-4: Corporate Profits with Inventory Valuation Adjustment by Industry Group (SIC Basis) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
9-5: Corporate Profits with Inventory Valuation Adjustment by Industry Group (NAICS Basis) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Notes and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

CHAPTER 10: EMPLOYMENT, HOURS, AND EARNINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

TABLES
10-1: Civilian Population and Labor Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
10-2: Civilian Employment and Unemployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
10-3: Unemployment Rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
10-4: Insured Unemployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
10-5: Nonfarm Employment by NAICS Supersector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
10-6: Production or Nonsupervisory Workers on Private Nonfarm Payrolls by NAICS Supersector . . . . . . . . . . . 204
10-7: Average Weekly Hours of Production or Nonsupervisory Workers on Private
Nonfarm Payrolls by NAICS Supersector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
10-8: Indexes of Aggregate Weekly Hours of Production or Nonsupervisory Workers
on Private Nonfarm Payrolls by NAICS Supersector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
10-9: Average Hourly Earnings of Production or Nonsupervisory Workers on Private
Nonfarm Payrolls by NAICS Supersector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
10-10: Average Weekly Earnings of Production or Nonsupervisory Workers on Private
Nonfarm Payrolls by NAICS Supersector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Notes and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

CHAPTER 11: ENERGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

TABLES
11-1: Energy Supply and Consumption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
11-2: Energy Consumption per Dollar of Real Gross Domestic Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Notes and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

CHAPTER 12: MONEY AND FINANCIAL MARKETS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

TABLES
12-1: Money Stock Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
12-2: Selected Components of the Money Stock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
12-3: Aggregate Reserves of Depository Institutions and Monetary Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
12-4: Commercial Banks: Bank Credit and Selected Liabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
viii BUSINESS STATISTICS OF THE UNITED STATES (BERNAN PRESS)

CHAPTER 12: MONEY AND FINANCIAL MARKETS (CONTINUED)

12-5: Credit Market Debt Outstanding, By Borrower and Lender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
12-6: Household Assets, Financial Obligations, and Delinquency Rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
12-7: Mortgage Debt Outstanding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
12-8: Consumer Credit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
12-9: Selected Interest Rates and Bond Yields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
12-10: Common Stock Prices and Yields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Notes and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

CHAPTER 13: INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

TABLES
13-1: International Comparisons: Growth Rates in Real Gross Domestic Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
13-2: International Comparisons: Real GDP per Capita . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
13-3: International Comparisons: Real GDP per Employed Person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
13-4: International Comparisons: Industrial Production Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
13-5: International Comparisons: Consumer Price Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
13-6: International Comparisons: Unemployment Rates and Civilian Labor Forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
13-7: Exchange Rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Notes and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

PART B: INDUSTRY PROFILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

CHAPTER 14: INDUSTRY DEFINITION AND STRUCTURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Article—“The Structure of U.S. Industry: An Introduction to the North American Industry
Classification System (NAICS)” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
TABLE
14-1: NAICS Industry Definitions: With Rough Derivation from SIC and Monthly Data Availability . . . . . . . . . 261

CHAPTER 15: GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT BY INDUSTRY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

TABLE
15-1: Gross Domestic Product by Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Notes and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

CHAPTER 16: EMPLOYMENT, HOURS, AND EARNINGS BY NAICS INDUSTRY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

TABLES
16-1: Nonfarm Employment by NAICS Sector and Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
16-2: Production or Nonsupervisory Workers on Private Nonfarm Payrolls by NAICS Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
16-3: Average Weekly Hours of Production or Nonsupervisory Workers on Private Nonfarm
Payrolls by NAICS Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
16-4: Average Hourly Earnings of Production or Nonsupervisory Workers on Private Nonfarm
Payrolls by NAICS Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
16-5: Average Weekly Earnings of Production or Nonsupervisory Workers on Private Nonfarm
Payrolls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
16-6: Indexes of Aggregate Weekly Hours of Production or Nonsupervisory Workers on Private
Nonfarm Payrolls by NAICS Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
16-7: Indexes of Aggregate Weekly Payrolls of Production or Nonsupervisory Workers on Private
Nonfarm Payrolls by NAICS Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Notes and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

CHAPTER 17: KEY SECTOR STATISTICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

TABLES
17-1: Petroleum and Petroleum Products—Imports, Domestic Production, and Stocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
17-2: New Construction Put in Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
17-3: Housing Starts and Building Permits; Home Sales and Prices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
17-4: Manufacturers’ Shipments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
17-5: Manufacturers’ Inventories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
 CONTENTS ix

17-6: Manufacturers’ New Orders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

17-7: Manufacturers’ Unfilled Orders, Durable Goods Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
17-8: Motor Vehicle Sales and Inventories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
17-9: Retail and Food Services Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
17-10: Retail Inventories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
17-11: Merchant Wholesalers—Sales and Inventories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
17-12: Selected Service Industries—Receipts of Taxable Firms, 1986–1998, by SIC Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
17-13: Selected Service Industries—Revenue of Tax-Exempt Firms, 1986–1998, by SIC Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
17-14: Selected Service Industries—Revenue, 1998–2001, by NAICS Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
17-15: Selected Service Industries—Revenue—Total and E-Commerce, 1998–2001, by NAICS Industry . . . . . . . 312
Notes and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

PART C: HISTORICAL DATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

CHAPTER 18: SELECTED ANNUAL DATA, 1939–1947 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

TABLE
18-1: Selected Aggregate Economic Data, 1939–1947 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Notes and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

CHAPTER 19: SELECTED HISTORICAL DATA FOR QUARTERLY SERIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

TABLES
19-1: Gross Domestic Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
19-2: Real Gross Domestic Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
19-3: Chain-Type Quantity Indexes for Gross Domestic Product and Domestic Purchases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
19-4: Chain-Type Price Indexes for Gross Domestic Product and Domestic Purchases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
19-5: National Income and Disposition of Personal Income . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
19-6: Inventories to Sales Ratios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
19-7: Federal Government Current Receipts and Expenditures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
19-8: State and Local Government Current Receipts and Expenditures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
19-9: U.S. International Transactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
19-10: Productivity and Related Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Notes and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

CHAPTER 20: SELECTED HISTORICAL DATA FOR MONTHLY SERIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

TABLES
20-1: Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
20-2: Summary Consumer and Producer Price Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
20-3: Summary Labor Force, Employment, and Unemployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
20-4: Nonfarm Payroll Employment, Hours, and Earnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
20-5: Money Stock, Reserves, and Monetary Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
20-6: Interest Rates, Bond Yields, and Stock Price Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
20-7: Composite Indexes of Economic Activity and Selected Index Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
Notes and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436

PART D: STATE AND REGIONAL DATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437

CHAPTER 21: STATE AND REGIONAL DATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

TABLES
21-1: Gross Domestic Product by State and Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
21-2: Personal Income and Employment by State and Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
Notes and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This volume would not have been possible without the the layout and graphics, assisted by Christopher
knowledge, experience, judgment, and computer and Jorgenson. Jacalyn Houston served as the lead copy edi-
organizational skills of Mary Meghan Ryan, Mark Siegal, tor. Jacalyn, Kara, and Christopher capably handled all
and Katherine DeBrandt, all of whom assisted the editor editorial and production aspects of this edition.
with researching and compiling the data.
Finally, special thanks are due to the many federal agency
Bernan’s editorial and production departments, under personnel who, as always, responded generously to our
the direction of Tamera Wells-Lee, did the copy editing, frequent need for assistance in obtaining data and back-
layout, and graphics preparation. Kara Prezocki prepared ground information.

xi
 PREFACE

Business Statistics of the United States: Patterns of Analysis (BEA); the data on labor force, employment,
Economic Change, Ninth Edition, 2004 is a basic desk ref- hours, earnings, and productivity compiled by the Bureau
erence for everyone requiring historical information of Labor Statistics (BLS); the price indexes also collected
about the U.S. economy since World War II, or needing by BLS; and financial market data compiled mainly by
background information for the interpretation of new the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
economic data as they are reported. It contains some (FRB). All of these sets exist in both annual and either
3,000 economic time series, predominantly from federal monthly or quarterly form dating from shortly after the
government sources, presenting a rich selection of the end of World War II—beginning in 1946, 1947, or 1948.
data most needed for analysis of economic trends and
patterns. Of equal importance with the data themselves In Part A, Business Statistics presents all annual values
are the extensive background notes that enable the user for major indicators and their significant components
to understand the data, use them appropriately, and, if back to the earliest postwar year available, along with
desired, seek additional information from the source recent quarterly or monthly data. This enables easy cal-
agencies. culation of growth rates for periods or subperiods and
more flexible comparisons of recent values with historical
THE 2004 EDITION data.

Business Statistics: 2004 retains the features of previous For many purposes, however, historical data at a higher
editions of Business Statistics but has been revamped to frequency than annual are required: comparison of activi-
provide a richer, deeper, and more comprehensive pic- ty before and after business cycle turning points, for
ture of the American economy. Its new subtitle— example, or observation of the effects of the outbreak or
Patterns of Economic Change—indicates the increased the end of war. For the main series presented in Part A,
resources that it makes available for analyzing the eco- historical quarterly or monthly data are presented in Part
nomic history of the past half-century, for observing past C, all the way back to the beginning of the postwar peri-
trends, and for providing the basis for projecting such od where available.
trends into the future.
In both Part A and Part C, the presentation begins with
• Whereas earlier editions typically presented data for the National Income and Product Accounts, or NIPAs.
only the latest 30 years, Business Statistics now presents The NIPAs comprise a comprehensive, thorough, and
data for the entire half-century since the end of World internally consistent data set. They measure the value of
War II, with summary data covering the war years the output of the U.S. economy (the Gross Domestic
1939–1947 as well, enabling the user to refer to earlier Product, or GDP); they factor that value into its quantity,
periods of war, recession, recovery, and cycles of infla- or “real”, and price components; and they show how the
tion and disinflation. value of output is distributed between the labor and capi-
tal that produce it.
• New data using the new North American Industry
Classification System give a much clearer picture of the Production estimates for the “industrial” sectors of the
most dynamic sectors of the “new economy.” economy—manufacturing, mining, and utilities—follow
the presentation of the overall accounts.
As always, each table in the 2004 edition has been updat-
ed through the latest full year for which data were avail- Then, more detail is presented for the final demand com-
able (usually 2002) and, in general, all historical revisions ponents of production. GDP by definition consists of the
to the data available as of November 2003 have been sum of consumption expenditures, business investment,
incorporated. In some cases that occurred late in the government purchases of goods and services, and exports
production process, even later revised data are incorpo- minus imports—the elementary economics blackboard
rated; this applies to energy, corporate profits by industry, equation “GDP =C + I + G + X – M.” Chapters on each
and some monetary data. of those demand components are presented in Part A.

THE PLAN OF THE BOOK Following those, there is a chapter on prices; two that are
concerned with the amount and compensation of labor
The history of the U.S. economy in the period since and capital inputs into production; one on energy inputs
World War II is told in the major U.S. government sets into production; and one on money and financial mar-
of statistical data: the National Income and Product kets.
Accounts compiled by the Bureau of Economic

xiii
xiv BUSINESS STATISTICS OF THE UNITED STATES (BERNAN PRESS)

While we initially define and measure Gross Domestic economy as specified in NAICS. This table indicates how
Product by adding up its final demand categories, this the NAICS statistical system is organized and shows—
output is produced in industries—some in the old-line very roughly in some cases–how each NAICS industry
heavy industries such as manufacturing, mining, and utili- relates to the earlier SIC industries. In the chapters that
ties, but an increasing share in the huge and heteroge- follow, Business Statistics presents detailed industry data
neous group known as “service-producing” industries. on the NAICS basis as far back as it is available. For the
Part A gives a number of summary measures of activity BLS employment and related data, this means data for
classified by industry or industrial sector—industrial pro- 1990 through 2002. For the Census Bureau data on man-
duction, profits, and employment-related data. ufacturers’ shipments, orders, and inventories, and whole-
sale and retail sales and stocks, this means data beginning
Industry data are presented in more detail in Part B. The in 1992. For these Census data, Business Statistics shows
user will not, however, find the same degree of historical roughly comparable data for earlier years, with an over-
continuity as in Part A. The pace of technological and lap shown in the year 1992, so that comparisons at a
organizational change that the American economy has broad level can be observed. For selected service indus-
experienced over the past half-century has been so rapid tries, NAICS data are available only from 1998 forward.
that the statistical industry definitions have had difficulty NIPA data on gross product by industry have not yet
keeping up with it. It has proved impossible in many been converted to NAICS, so they are presented on the
cases to produce historical data series that cover the SIC basis only. Profits by industry are presented on the
entire postwar period and also reflect in a meaningful SIC basis through 2000 and on the NAICS basis from
way the detailed industrial structure of the economy as it 1998 through 2002.
exists today.
Part C, Historical Data, begins with a table summarizing
The industries that were used to categorize data during annual values for important economic aggregates for the
most of the postwar period were originally defined in the years 1939–1947, giving some suggestion of the enormous
1930s and modified only modestly since then. They do changes the economy went through as it mobilized for
not provide an adequate framework for analyzing eco- World War II and subsequently demobilized. In the sub-
nomic activity in the twenty-first century. An up-to-date sequent two chapters, quarterly or monthly data for
system called the North American Industry Classification NIPA data and other major indicators provide the oppor-
System (NAICS) has been put into effect beginning in tunity to observe changes associated with all of the 10
1997. Most of the government’s statistical series have business cycles that have been identified in the postwar
been converted to this system, and the remainder will be period.
coming on line in the next 2 years. However, this system
required breaks with the past at many disaggregated Part D, State and Regional Data, now includes not only
reporting levels, and data collected on the earlier data by state and region on personal income and employ-
Standard Industrial Classification system (SIC) are, in ment back to 1972, but also values and quantity indexes
many areas, not easily convertible to the new system. for Gross Domestic Product by state and region back to
1977.
Different statistical agencies have dealt with this problem
in different ways, and Business Statistics provides both Notes and Definitions. Productive use of economic data
detailed information for recent data and as much histori- requires accurate knowledge about the sources and
cal comparability as possible. For industrial production, meaning of the data. The Notes and Definitions for each
the Federal Reserve Board has been able to carry esti- chapter, shown immediately after that chapter’s tables,
mates on the NAICS basis back to at least 1972 (1967 for contain definitions, descriptions of recent data revisions,
some higher-level aggregates); these are shown in and references to sources of additional technical informa-
Chapters 2 and 20. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has tion. They also include information about data availabili-
calculated employment and related data back to 1939 for ty and revision and release schedules, so that the user
NAICS “supersectors,” and these are shown in Chapters may readily access the latest current values if he or she
10 and 18. On the other hand, the Census Bureau’s capi- needs to keep up with the data month by month or quar-
tal expenditures survey gives data by NAICS industries ter by quarter.
beginning only in 1998 (Chapter 5).
THE HISTORY OF BUSINESS STATISTICS
In Part B, Business Statistics first presents a general
description of NAICS and its differences from SIC, fol- The history of Business Statistics began with the publica-
lowed by a table summarizing the structure of the U.S. tion, many years ago, by the U.S. Commerce
 PREFACE xv

Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) of Dr. Strawser is Senior Economic Consultant to Bernan
the first edition of a volume of the same name and gener- Press. She edited the seventh and eighth edition and was
al purpose. After 27 periodic editions, the last of which the co-editor on two previous editions of Business
appeared in 1992, the BEA found it necessary, for budg- Statistics. She was co-editor of Foreign Trade of the
etary and other reasons, to discontinue not only that pub- United States, 2001, and also worked on the Handbook of
lication but also maintenance of the database from which U.S. Labor Statistics. She was formerly Senior Economist
the publication was derived. at the U.S. House of Representatives Budget Committee
and has also served at the Senate Budget Committee, the
The individual statistical series gathered together here Congressional Budget Office, and the Federal Reserve
are publicly available. However, the task of gathering Board. Her fields of special concentration included
them from a number of sources within the government, analysis of current business conditions, including issues of
plus a few private sources, and assembling them into one economic measurement; monetary and fiscal policy; and
coherent database is impractical for most data users. income distribution and poverty.
Even when current data are more-or-less readily avail-
able, obtaining the full historical time series often is time- Assistant editor Mary Meghan Ryan, a Bernan Press
consuming and difficult. Definitions and other documen- data analyst, is a former economist with the American
tation can be inconvenient to find as well. Believing that Economics Group. Mary Meghan assisted with data col-
a Business Statistics compilation was too valuable to be lection and research as well as prepared data tables for
lost to the public, Bernan Press published the first edition this edition of Business Statistics. Mary Meghan, also an
of the present publication in 1995, edited by Dr. assistant editor of Bernan Press’ Handbook of U.S. Labor
Courtenay M. Slater. The first edition received a warm Statistics, received her bachelor’s degree in economics
welcome among users of economic data. Dr. Slater, for- from the University of Maryland.
merly Chief Economist of the Department of Commerce,
continued to edit and improve Business Statistics through Mark Siegal, a research editor with Bernan Press, served
four subsequent annual editions. The current editor as an assistant editor on this edition of Business Statistics.
worked with Dr. Slater on the fourth and fifth editions, Mark previously worked as a staff assistant with the
and in subsequent editions has continued in the tradition USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at
established by Dr. Slater of ensuring high-quality data Tufts University, and has a background in researching
while revising and expanding the book’s scope to include government data; statistics and data management; techni-
significant new aspects of the U.S. economy. cal writing; and editing. Mark, also an assistant editor on
Vital Statistics of the United States, has a B.S. in communi-
Most of the statistical data in this book are from federal cation (with distinction in research) from Cornell
government sources and are in the public domain. A few University and a certificate in epidemiology from Tufts
series are from private sources and further use may be University.
subject to copyright restrictions. Sources and restrictions,
if any, are given in the Notes and Definitions. Katherine DeBrandt is a senior data analyst with Bernan
Press and has worked on Business Statistics for 4 years.
The data in this volume meet the publication standards As an assistant editor on this edition, Katherine provided
of the federal statistical agencies from which they were Mary Meghan and Mark with guidance on data research
obtained. Every effort has been made to select data that matters. Katherine received her B.A. in political science
are accurate, meaningful, and useful. All statistical data from Colgate University. She is also co-editor of the
are subject to error arising from sampling variability, County and City Extra series; The Almanac of American
reporting errors, incomplete coverage, imputation, and Education; and Social Change in America: The Historical
other causes. The responsibility of the editor and publish- Handbook, all published by Bernan Press.
er of this volume is limited to reasonable care in the
reproduction and presentation of data obtained from The editor assumes full responsibility for the interpreta-
established sources. tions presented in this volume.

The 2004 edition has been edited by Cornelia J. Strawser,

in association with Katherine DeBrandt, Mary Meghan
Ryan, and Mark Siegal.
 EXPANDED HISTORICAL STATISTICS GIVE PERSPECTIVE ON GROWTH, WAR, INFLATION,
AND UNEMPLOYMENT

The ninth edition of Business Statistics of the United which natural logs do not exist. Since percentage values
States provides deeper perspectives on the United States such as the unemployment rate and percentage changes
economy than previous editions. Business Statistics now such as the inflation rate are already in percentage terms,
includes a summary economic record of the Second and may include zero and/or negative values, they are not
World War and extensive detail describing the entire, graphed in this fashion.
remarkable half-century that has followed the end of that
war. For the first time, Business Statistics enables its Compound annual growth rates. In the text of this article
users to look at the entire postwar period as a whole; to and in the highlights pages that precede many of the
compare the performance of the U.S. economy in differ- chapters, the editor has used compound annual growth
ent wars, large and small; to compare economic perform- rates to summarize the long-term history of important
ance in each of the 10 postwar business cycles; and to economic processes such as economic and demographic
examine the entire history of the cycle of inflation and growth and inflation.
disinflation that occurred from the 1960s through the
1990s. The compound annual growth rate is the percentage rate
which, compounded annually, would cause a quantity
Analytical techniques “X(t)” observed in a period “t” to grow (or decline) to a
quantity “X(t+i)” over a period of “i” years. Using this
In assessing the performance of an economy over longer procedure, growth percentages for different periods span-
periods of time, it is important to use analytical tech- ning different numbers of years can be reduced to a com-
niques that best allow underlying economic relationships mon scale for comparison. The formula for calculating
to reveal themselves. In this article, and in the graphs such a growth rate, “r,” is as follows:
and text that precede each Business Statistics data chap-
ter, the editor will frequently make use of three such
 i X (t + i ) 
tools: the ratio-scale graph; the calculation of compound r=  − 1 x100 .
 X ( t ) 
annual growth rates; and the use of cyclically comparable
years to calculate longer-term trends.
When growth rates are related to each other, such as the
Ratio-scale graphs. At the beginning of Chapter 1 is a growth rates for output, hours worked, and output per
time series graph of output per capita from 1946 through hour worked (productivity), those rates will be arithmeti-
2002, drawn on a ratio scale. Output per capita is the cally consistent as in the following formula, where “o” is
constant-dollar value of each year’s U.S. Gross Domestic the percentage growth rate for output, “h” the rate for
Product (GDP) divided by the size of that year’s U.S. hours worked, and “p” the growth rate for output per
population. The reader will quickly see that equal dis- hour worked:
tances on the vertical scale of this graph do not represent
equal 1996-dollar differences in values. However, equal p = [(100 + o / 100 + h)-1]x100
vertical distances do represent equal percent changes.
Any upward-sloping straight line plotted on this scale Where the percentage growth rates are not very far from
would represent a constant rate of growth over the peri- zero, the relationships can be approximated or verified
od, and any downward-sloping straight line would repre- by simple subtraction, for example, the productivity
sent a constant percentage rate of decline. growth rate of 2.4 percent is approximately the differ-
ence between the output growth rate of 3.6 percent and
This ratio-scale graph was produced by the following the hours growth rate of 1.2 percent.
three steps: (1) Convert the values to be graphed into
natural (base e) logarithms. (2) Graph the natural loga- Using cyclically comparable end points. For economic
rithms. (3) For ease in interpretation, relabel (“by processes that have significant business-cycle compo-
hand,” not using the computer graphing program) the nents, such as output and employment, it is important to
vertical scale on the graph, replacing the actual numerical use comparable points in the business cycle for estimat-
value of the logarithm that was plotted with the numeri- ing underlying growth rates. One commonly used
cal value of its antilog, that is, the original value. method is simply to calculate growth rates between years
with similar, high rates of resource utilization. The
This technique is only valid, of course, for aggregate val- broadest readily available measure of resource utilization
ues that do not include zeroes or negative numbers, for is the unemployment rate, which was 3.8 percent in 1948

xvii
xviii BUSINESS STATISTICS OF THE UNITED STATES (BERNAN PRESS)

and 4.0 percent in 2000. Hence, in the analysis that fol- The increase in the volume of both export and import
lows, postwar long-term growth rates are typically calcu- trade and the change in the net international balance
lated as the rates for the 52-year period from 1948 to from surplus to deficit are perhaps the most dramatic
2000. shifts that have taken place over the postwar period. At
the end of World War II, the United States had what
For comparisons using monthly or quarterly data, an amounted to the world’s only fully functioning economy
alternative is to use the dates of business cycle peaks, among all the industrialized nations. War-devastated
which are shown in the Notes and Definitions to Table 1- countries needed U.S. consumption and investment goods
11, as beginning and end points. to survive and rebuild, and were not yet able to generate
enough exports to pay for them; the U.S. positive export
A half-century of economic growth and change balance had to be financed by U.S. government grants
and loans.
Real gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest meas-
ure of the output of the U.S. economy, grew at an average Today, industries all over the world can compete with
3.5 percent per year from 1948 to 2000. Year by year, ours, and many countries generate balance of payments
growth varied from +8.7 percent in 1950—when a cyclical surpluses. These surpluses represent saving within these
recovery coincided with the outbreak of the Korean countries, evidently in excess of their own investment
War—to –2.0 percent in the 1982 recession. (Tables 1-2 needs or opportunities, which they can invest in the
and 1-3) Although there were 10 recessions in the post- United States, thus financing the U.S. trade deficit. (See
war period—periods when output, employment, and Chapter 7 for data on foreign trade and finance.) One of
other aggregate indicators all declined—they were out- the principal debates about today’s economy concerns
numbered and outweighed by periods of expansion. the sustainability of the U.S. trade deficit and the associ-
(Table 1-11 and its Notes and Definitions) ated capital inflow.

GDP, by definition, is the sum of personal consumption While the shares of total consumption and investment in
spending, business investment, government consumption GDP seem to have changed relatively little, large and
and investment, and exports, minus imports. In the stan- striking changes can be seen within each category.
dard blackboard equation, “GDP = C + I + G + X – M.”
This definition takes only final demands into account, Consumers in the aggregate were able to spend a smaller
eliminating any double-counting of intermediate stages share of their total consumption on food, tobacco, cloth-
of production. (See the Notes and Definitions to ing, and personal care, a greater share on transportation
Chapter 15 for further explanation.) The measurement and miscellaneous categories, and a much larger share on
of GDP is based on summing these final demands, there- medical care. This includes medical care paid for by pri-
by not only providing the measure of output but also illu- vate and government insurance, including Medicare and
minating the sources of demand. Medicaid. (Table 4-5)

The composition of GDP has changed between 1948 and Within investment spending, the share of information
2000. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) rose processing equipment was up sharply over the half-centu-
from 65.1 percent to 68.0 percent of the total; private ry. (Table 5-2)
investment was almost unchanged at 17.8 percent to 17.9
percent; and government consumption and investment The federal government’s consumption and investment
spending (federal, state, and local combined) rose from spending as a share of GDP fell from 9.0 percent to 6.0
15.1 percent to 17.8 percent. How could all three shares percent. This does not, however, give a complete picture
rise? The answer lies in the other two terms of the equa- of the role of federal spending in the economy. Total fed-
tion. Imports increased from 3.8 percent to 14.9 percent, eral spending includes not only the categories classified
while exports only rose from 5.8 percent to 11.2 percent. as consumption and investment in the National Income
Recall that imports are a subtraction from final demands and Product Accounts but also federal transfer payments,
in the calculation of GDP: they represent demands that of which more than half are Social Security and
have been satisfied by foreign instead of domestic pro- Medicare; federal interest payments; and federal grants
duction. Thus, the United States is now consuming and to state and local governments. (See Chapter 6.) The
investing more than it produces, reflected in an interna- role of these latter three categories in final demand is
tional balance on goods and services that is a negative 3.7 represented by the consumption, investment, and state
percent of GDP, compared with a positive balance of 2.0 and local government spending that they support.
percent in 1948. (See Chapters 1 and 7.) Furthermore, the receipts side of the federal accounts
also affects final demands through tax rates and flows.
 EXPANDED HISTORICAL STATISTICS xix

Federal transfer payments grew from 4.9 percent of per- employed outside farms rose at a 1.9 percent rate. A sep-
sonal income in 1948 to 12.7 percent in 2000. One partic- arate count of nonfarm payroll jobs rose even faster, 2.1
ularly significant factor was the growth in Medicare and percent. The payroll count is a count of jobs, so a person
Medicaid, neither of which existed in 1948. (Table 4-1) with two jobs is counted twice, whereas that person is
counted only once as a “person employed.” There are
Total personal interest income grew from 3.9 percent to other important differences as well. (See Chapter 10, its
12.8 percent of total personal income. (Table 4-1) It is Notes and Definitions, and the Special Notes.)
difficult to trace federal (and other) interest payments
through the economy because of the duplicative pay- Unemployment, like economic growth, varied from year
ments and receipts generated by financial intermediation. to year, with postwar unemployment rates ranging from a
Given that the federal share of total domestic nonfinan- low of 2.9 percent in 1953, in the period of the Korean
cial debt plummeted from 59.2 percent in 1948 to 18.6 War, to 9.7 percent in 1982. At the height of World War
percent in 2000 (Table 12-5), it can be surmised that the II, even lower unemployment rates were achieved.
growth in personal interest income did not arise princi- (Tables 10-3 and 18-1)
pally from federal interest payments.
Unemployment is, of course, directly related to economic
On the receipts side of the federal government accounts, growth over the business cycle—yet the relationship
total tax receipts rose from 15.7 percent of GDP in 1948 (known as “Okun’s Law”) is not always regular or pre-
to 20.7 percent in 2000. The latter percent is not repre- dictable. Changes in productivity and the workweek
sentative of subsequent years, however, as it included affect the relationship of employment change to output
unusually high receipts from the stock market boom and change, and changes in labor force participation affect
preceded the substantial tax cuts that began in 2001. By the relationship of the change in the unemployment rate
2002, federal receipts had fallen to 17.9 percent of GDP. to employment change.
(Tables 6-1 and 1-1)
Looking at the longer-term trend, output grew faster
Finishing the accounting for GDP by final demands, the than employment during the past half-century because of
state and local government spending share of GDP increases in labor productivity, that is, output per hour
jumped from 6.1 percent in 1948 to 11.8 percent in 2000. worked. In Chapter 9, measures of productivity are pre-
Federal grants-in-aid rose from 10.5 percent to 20.4 per- sented for the total business sector, which was 77 percent
cent of total state receipts. On the receipts side, receipts of the value of GDP in 1996, and three important subsec-
other than federal grants, that is, state and local taxes and tors—nonfarm business, nonfinancial corporations, and
social insurance contributions, rose from 5.4 percent to manufacturing.
9.8 percent of GDP (Tables 6-2 and 1-1).
Hours worked and productivity. Business sector output
Labor force, employment, and productivity growth per hour grew at a 2.4 percent annual rate from 1948 to
2000. This is the arithmetic result of business sector out-
The total U.S. population grew at a 1.3 percent annual put growing 3.6 percent—only slightly faster than total
rate from 1948 to 2000, while the growth in GDP was GDP—while aggregate hours worked (the number of
more than double that rate, leading to a significant rate jobs times the average workweek per job) rose only 1.2
of increase in the average real standard of living as meas- percent on average.
ured by per capita GDP. (Table 1-10 and Chapter 1
graph) This happened because more and more Factoring the change in hours worked into its employ-
Americans went to work, and their productivity grew ment and average hours components reveals another
even faster than their work input. salient fact about the last half-century—the decline in the
average job’s workweek. The number of jobs in the busi-
Labor force and employment. The civilian labor force— ness sector increased from 1948 to 2000 at a 1.5 percent
the number of persons either working or seeking work— rate, while the average workweek—the number of hours
rose 1.7 percent per year, as the labor force participation worked per job—declined at a rate of 0.3 percent. (Table
rate rose from 58.8 percent to 67.1 percent of the work- 9-3)
ing-age civilian noninstitutional population. In addition,
there was a shift of employment out of agriculture and Does this mean that the average American worker is
into more-productive nonagricultural industries—a con- working shorter hours, or that the average American
tinuation of a trend that started at the dawn of the family can be supported by less paid work effort? Not
Industrial Revolution. Agricultural employment declined necessarily, because the precise meaning of “hours
over the half-century and the total number of persons worked per job” must be understood. In the productivity
Other documents randomly have
different content
He had written a play, choke-full of the most obvious symbolism. It
had failed. It was not even considered original—indeed, it had been
condemned as being very poor Ibsen indeed.
Nor had he won money out of the venture.
He was sadly puzzled.
Not to be original! it were not to be Quogg Myre.
He searched the history of genius to find a precedent on which to
act—to be original.
He arose on to his splay feet, and with his awkward slovenly gait
paced the room, shivered at the discomfort of his thoughts, walked
to the fireplace and stood brooding at his image in the mirror above
it; his hands thrust deep in his trousers pockets. His untidy
colourless hair fell over his paste-coloured forehead—it was more
untidy than usual, more colourless. A hank of it stood out on the
back of his poll like the crest of a cockatoo. He was sickly pale. His
weak puffy red lip was limp and uneasy. His long quarrelsome chin
alone held firm for bouts of decision. It was his chin that fought the
slacknesses of his body.
How had Shakespeare and these clever fellows discovered their
great art? Why should not he create a school? These fellows—
Shakespeare, Dickens, Balzac, Carlyle, Meredith, Sterne, and the rest
—they had been just real live men, needing their dinner, sleeping o’
nights, fighting their way to fame year after year, rebuffed, sneered
at, ordinary human flesh—without half his chances. What was the
trick that they had discovered?
Ay; what the key to their wizardry?
These fellows, the big ones, had never fretted their souls with all
these frets of style, of art for art’s sake, of their rating by jabbering
classifiers in the eternities. Whilst he—he had wasted the years on
such tom-follies. Nay, in expressing themselves they had created
style. They had had something deeper than style. What was it?
There was something deep down in the heart of things that made
their work live. Some mystic sense——
By heavens, it was mysticism!
He would get up mysticism—read it up at the libraries. He would
write mysticism into his work——
He shivered.
In the curio shop, a fool of a Jap had drawn a sharp dagger from its
sheath that morning—he hated knives and edged tools.
God! how cold it was!
He suddenly remembered——
Solignac lay stretched on his death-bed. He had a mind to go and
see him lying so.... This Solignac must have died enormously rich—
his collections were world-famous.
He went and put on his hat and cloak; lurched to the door——
At the door he hesitated.
Have a care!
Look to thyself, master Myre! That leopard quietude, the catlike lithe
walk, may be the watchful prowl of one that sees more than thou
with all thy blatancy and bold staring of fish-like grey eyes—perhaps,
too, fears less. Bluster thou canst outbluster—but the silences thou
canst not understand.... Wherefore thou shalt not dare that silent
woman beyond the goading point of thy vulgarity—if thou be wise.
Have a care.
He shut the door—came back—took off his cloak and hat—flung
them on a chair.
He would like to have flouted this cold woman in that death-
chamber; it had never been done, it would come well in his
autobiography; but——
What had this woman heard—guessed—seen—in that first month?
Damnation! He had been so careful—so circumspect. He recalled the
warm accents frozen to cold disdain almost before they had left her
father’s house. She baffled him—made him uneasy. He had scolded,
supplicated, whimpered, blustered.... What chiefly remained in the
fearful hollows of his conceit was the passionless voice in its last
statement that if he stepped across her door again she would kill
him.
On his soul, he had been glad to be rid of her.
She alarmed him. He had jested about her to his fellows—but——
He shivered uncomfortably.
Yes. This woman alarmed him. He felt that his throat might be slit as
he slept.... He rather liked a wordy brawl with women—he had his
moments in drawing-room cynicism. He could brow-beat them with
the best. He had pen-courage too. With a pen and ink-pot he was
absolutely without fear. But——
With this silent woman he never could shake off the feeling of
discomfort. She baffled him. He feared her.
By God! he had it. He would write a book upon all his gadding loves
with women—she should figure there as one of many. She would
free him in the divorce courts.
And the scandal would float him into public notice again.
 CHAPTER LII
Wherein Yankee Doodle is bugled—with a Strong Foreign Accent
Hearing her name called, Betty roused; and, crossing the room, went
to the balcony. Looking down into the court she saw the Five Foolish
Virgins standing there below with faces upraised. The big fellow,
Dick Davenant, called up that his cousin Molly wanted Betty to go to
her straight away—wanted her along—before her guests arrived—
she was giving a “tea”—they would meet later—when they had
gotten the cakes and looked up “the boys.” All this bawled at the top
of his jolly lungs’ strength.
Betty called down that she would go.
The young fellows waved their hats and marched out of the
courtyard, chattering.
Betty wrote upon a half-sheet of paper that she was off to Moll
Davenant’s, and pinned it on the wall where Noll must see it on
entering the room; and, quickly dressing for the street, she let
herself out of her room.

Moll Davenant was sitting on the side of her bed, seized with a harsh
attack of coughing—sitting there, clutching the bedclothes with her
long thin fingers. The perspiration came out in a heavy dew upon
her white skin. The struggle for breath was terrible, pathetic.
When she took her handkerchief from her mouth it was stained with
blood.
She passed long slender hands over her damp brow and with deft
fingers made a weary effort to get order into the bedraggled
disorder of her mouse-coloured hair.
She moaned miserably, and her eyes roamed heavily over the
littered room before her—“I shall never get this place tidy,” she said.
There was a sharp brisk knock.
The door opened and Betty stepped into the room:
“Gracious, Moll!” cried she, glancing at the litter of the untidy place,
“we must be quick!”
She had shut the door behind her when she entered; she now went
back and locked it.
Moll Davenant rose from the bed with the sudden and feverish
energy of a consumptive, and ran to Betty—the shadow of death
gone from her haggard face—the hunted look departed from her
great glowing eyes—a flush of delight painting the pallid features.
She flung her arms about Betty:
“Thank Heaven, you are come, Betty—I was at my wits’ end.”
Betty gently unlocked the girl’s embrace:
“Come, Molly,” said she, taking off her gloves and jacket—“there’s no
time to lose—they’ll be here in an hour. Gracious! What confusion!”
She laughed gaily.
Moll Davenant looked about her helplessly.
Betty kissed her:
“Come along, Molly—where are the fineries? We’ll start with the
sommier.”
She tidied the bed coverings, and before the other, languidly sighing,
had brought some faded silks and embroideries from a box, Betty
had made smooth the wondrous bed of the Latin Quarter to its
intention of many-coloured lounge by day. Betty’s quick fingers were
soon hiding all signs of bed under silk and satin. She arose, flushed
from the tuckings-in, and the smoothings-out; and, taking an edge
of battered silk pillow-case in her teeth, she slipped a pillow into it,
shook it into place, and buttoned it down.
As the pillow disappeared into its crumpled once-gorgeous covering,
the last sign of bed-hood passed out of the bed, and the sommier
took on the splendour of an Eastern ottoman.
Betty laughed; sat down on the edge of the ottoman, and ran her
eyes over the room.
Moll Davenant went to her, flung herself on the floor at her feet, and
burst into tears.
Betty stroked her shoulder:
“Come, come, Molly,” said she—“we must get on. Don’t be stupid
——”
The girl made a pitiful effort to stop her sobs.
Betty stood up; raised the poor girl to her feet; and led her to the
stove:
“Come, Moll—we’ll talk as soon as the room is in order....”
Wherever Betty went, order resulted. The easel was swung into
position and a sketch placed upon it—sketches were set out on a
ledge that ran along the wall. Chairs were slewed into position. And
soon there was but a little pile of stray impossible things in the
middle of the room that had no ordered place therein. Betty
completed the pile with a pair of dingy slippers.
“I think,” said she—“it is time to bury the refuse.” And the two of
them, laughing, soon had the litter thrust under the bed. A silk
hanging descended over it, and it was gone. Order was everywhere.
“I’ll finish the coffee,” said Betty—“you go and tidy yourself, Moll.”
Betty made herself tidy, and, flushed with the exertion, sat down on
the lounge:
“Heigho!” sighed she.
Moll Davenant came to her, and nestled on the rug at her knee.
“Now, Moll, what is it? But we had better unlock the door—all’s
clear.”
She rose to go to the door.
Moll drew her down by the skirt:
“No, Betty—not yet.”
Betty sat down and drew the dainty head into her lap:
“What is it, Molly?”
“Betty”—she hesitated, and added miserably—“I ought never to have
come to Paris.”
“Why?”
“Because—because there is no one to look after father—and—he
never said a word to prevent me coming to Paris—he said he
thought it would be just splendid for me—but—I know now how
lonely he is—he’s such a man—he never said a word to hinder me
leaving him all alone—never said a word that hinted of the lonely
home I left behind me—but—well, it was the night before I left, I
was lonely and got out of bed and crept downstairs, and he was
sitting at a table, a lighted candle beside him, and he was looking at
a little pair of shoes—they were the first little shoes I ever wore——”
She fell a-sobbing:
“And now I know—I know—I know.”
Betty laid her hand on the girl’s shoulder:
“But, Moll—you are going home to America within the year!”
She shook her head sadly:
“I ought never to have come here—we are so poor—I have crippled
their means—I have crippled father—I am crippling dear old Dick—
and I am only a mediocrity after all. And now I am doomed.”
“Hush, Moll! You mustn’t say these things.”
The girl was seized with a violent attack of coughing.
“Betty—I just wanted to be a genius—to be talked about. At heart I
only wanted to be an artist in order to make a name. It was the
name. Now—I have awaked to find—I am a woman. I—have—only a
little while—a little, little life. I know it. Why fear it? Don’t shake your
head, Betty, dear heart—the doctors broke it to me this morning....
But—I would just like to have—played—with a child——”
Betty laughed softly:
“Oho! mistress Molly,” said she—“so there’s a man—at last!”
Betty turned up the girl’s face between her hands:
“Who is it?” she asked.
“Eustace Lovegood.”
Betty bent down and kissed her:
“You happy thing!” she said. “And how on earth did you come across
Eustace Lovegood?”
“We were a whole month in London before we came on here—
Eustace and my cousin Dick took to each other—and—so—
everything came about.... We knew nobody and were lonely—but
Eustace made the sun shine—he helped us to Paris—he said we
could live so much cheaper here——”
“But, Moll—what became of Eustace—and—the sunshine?”
“He’s in Paris. Has been in Paris for nearly a week.”
“Oho! and you’ve been keeping the sunshine all to yourself, Moll! Tut
tut!”
Moll burst into tears.
Betty stroked her cheek:
“No, no, Moll; this will never do. Where’s the sunshine?”
“He’s gone,” she sobbed.
“Gone?”
Moll nodded through her tears:
“One of the girls at the studio said he was making me ridiculous.
And—I told Eustace. And—yesterday morning he wrote to tell me the
girl was right—and—and——”
She was seized with a violent fit of coughing.
Betty’s brows were knit:
“What did you do, Moll?”
“Nothing.”
Betty drew the dainty head within her lap:
“Thou fool!” she said in French—it seemed less harsh, whilst just as
true; and, after a while, she added in English:
“Thou poor mad fool, Moll!”
Moll was sobbing miserably.
Betty sat and soothed her, running her healing hand over the
sobbing girl’s hair, and thinking:
“Fancy!” she said at last—“fancy! Eustace Lovegood!” And she looked
down at the fragile figure at her knees. She saw that the slender
frame was grown more sadly slender—the thin hands more sadly
transparent—the fire of the strange and awful disease was eating
her blood. The girl was torn with the feverish energy of the devil of
consumption, that whispered urgingly at her elbow to live her
moment at the topmost pitch of energy or she would be too late.
Betty was roused from her brooding by the shuffle of footsteps that
ascended the stairs outside—and the sound of light-hearted laughter.
“Moll, quick! here they come!”
She bent down and kissed the girl:
“Let me think it out,” she said—“we must do something. I’ll do it. I
know Eustace Lovegood well.... Now you are hostess—stand up—
and take command of yourself.... That’s right.” She sprang to the
door, unlocked it, and skipped back to the other.
There was a loud knock.
The Five Foolish Virgins trooped in, headed by Gaston Latour,
playing on the French horn what was soon discovered to be “Yankee
Doodle”—with a strong French accent.
 CHAPTER LIII
Wherein we skip down the Highway of Youth
Saturday night.
The Boule Miche was ablaze with light of frequent cafés; its roadway
vexed with roar of wheeled traffic; its pavements astir with shuffle of
many feet.
From the Place Saint Michel, where the black waters of the stealthy
river washed her quays in darkling passage to the far sea, the broad
thoroughfare of the Boule Miche, the students’ highway, flaring in
the black reek, swept upwards to the shadowy gardens of the
Luxembourg, topped the hill, and was lost amongst the stars.
Riverwards, where the Ile de la Cité, with sombre hint of law-courts
and hospital, arose from out the flood in the pitchy murk of the
night, loomed the dark cathedral towers of Notre Dame, gloomy with
threat of eternal punishment to transgressors—and low down and
afar gleamed the weeping lights of the Morgue, where sleep, after
their last violence, the disowned and discarded dead.
But neither above on the limitless blue, where are the stars, nor
below on the unthinking litanies of an outworn creed, nor upon the
rude death that ends alike the abstemious nun and the dizzy jig of
Folly and Crime, were bent the thoughts of the multitudinous
students who ranged the highway, making holiday—indeed, their
eager eyes were wholly set upon living the conventional
unconventionalities of youth, skipping down the highway of life with
shout and laughter and song and merry riot, arm in arm, in rollicking
mood, reckless of the flitting years, careless of the eternities.
It was midnight, and the Bal Bullier being at an end, its frantic
dancings done, and its doors closed, the youths were pouring into
the Boule Miche with much rustle of prettily dressed young women
who hung upon their arms—and were hovering about the lighted
spaces where the cafés blazed into the street.
The sombre academics enwrapped in the darkness of the alleys at
either hand, and the professors who snored in their staid beds—
what mattered they? Away with pompous thinking, when the blood’s
jigging. And if they were awake even the most learned of the old
gentlemen, with fullest sprinkling of dandruff on collar, shall he
explain the thrill that is in the kiss of a woman’s lips, or add a tittle
to the glory of it in the explaining, for all his learned researches? It is
there, for the getting, and it holds none the more magnificence for
the dissecting of it. Youth is theirs but for a fleeting too little while—
and the blood is a-jumping—and there is life—and the love of
woman—and the laughter of wine—and the joy of song—and
pleasant comradeship. Revelry if you will; but the dear earth is for
the enjoying. Tush! youth is not for the denying. And there is no
time for arguments, or the gladness of life is flown almost before the
rubbing of bewildered eyes.
God! what it is to breathe! to love God’s design by living it.
What hath philosophy done but make the world yawn, thou
numbskull dreamer of dreams that shouldst be living dreams?
This is life. The miracle is given to you. What is changing water into
wine to this? Take it in both hands. Grasp it. Live it. All the thinking
of all the academies cannot give you this. Grown old in mere
thinking upon life, you shall not call back the blithe days of your
youth. Dig your hands deep into the grave of your dead self, and you
shall not find the splendid years of the joy of life. Get you up to the
uttermost mountains’ tops, dive you to the bottom of the uttermost
deeps, you shall not find it. It was yours. Whilst you brooded
hesitant how to spend it, it hath slipped your fingers, passed like a
sunlit merriment, and become part of a sigh in the eternal mystery.
The lordship over vasty continents shall not yield you the glory of it
—neither ambition nor riches nor learning nor immortality shall yield
you a shred of that which, wholly unasked for, was yours.
God! how lavish, how wasteful, thou!
Why hug the skeleton of life? Fool! peer thou hard enough: yonder,
at the end of all, in the shadows, stands the Reaper—down the
roadway grimly smile the sombre mutes standing impatiently by a
plumed hearse, expectant of fees. Alike for saint and sinner and gay
and sober they smirk. They take your measure. ’Tis waste of time to
protest with them. The rascals have the last word.
Tush! Go hang to them!
So they sing in the tavern on youth’s highway—and toss off the toast
—and are merry.

Inside the Café Harcourt, at a table, in an angle somewhat apart

from the scintillating din, sat Quilliam O’Flaherty Macloughlin Myre
and the exquisite Aubrey. The Honourable Rupert Greppel also was
there, hidalgic, aloof, aristocratic; and Lord Monty Askew, leaning his
chin on the jade handle of his cane, and gloved with sleeved gloves,
like a woman’s—he, too, being aristocrat, could not live without the
attention of the crowd whom he despised in speech and verse. And
as Rupert Greppel uttered his splendid contempt of humanity, Askew
would nod, giving Greppel the polite attention of his eyes—his
thoughts the while on his own pose and poesies. Aubrey too was
gazing at himself in a mirror.
Greppel was airing his hidalgeries, regretting that all hope of the
hunting of peasants with dogs was lost in these vulgar days of
democracy.
Quogge Myre was about to yawn openly, when his roving gaze fell
upon the handsome face of Bartholomew Doome at a table near by,
where, on either side of him, there sat two of the most pronounced
beauties of the Latin Quarter. Myre caught the eyes of Horace
Malahide, who with Babette at his side also sat at Doome’s table;
and he nodded and smiled through his colourless untidy moustache
at the young fellow.
The two beautiful young women were turned to Doome, gazing
upon his handsome face with hungry eyes of admiration. Gaston
Latour, sitting opposite, was leaning forward, stroking the gloved
hand of one of them where it lay upon the table, Doome listening to
him with an amused smile.
“Ah, Liane,” said Latour, “the English are good fellows, but they
cannot love.... Conjugate their verb: I lof, thou loffest, he lofs, ve lof,
you lof, zey lof—it is like coughing into a passionate woman’s ecstatic
ear—it is born of their fog—as well kiss a haddock!”
The two young women smiled away the sally pityingly, keeping their
rapt eyes on the Byronic Doome.
Gaston grinned:
“Mon Dieu!” said he, “he has not even an Englishman’s excuse for
existence—he is not even rich.”
The two women had arisen, scowling at each other’s handsome
faces, their beautiful lips set angrily, and began to quarrel about the
seated Doome, who thrust his hands into his pockets resignedly, and
sat grimly silent through it all.
Words were like to come to blows between the two women, for the
hot-blooded Liane, to reach the other, moved out to battle—the
other retired slowly up the café, her reckless rallies as she withdrew
bringing all eyes to the disturbance.
Women stood up on chairs and tables, to see the details; and the
students thundered applause, and threw in comic suggestions.
“The last word is with Liane,” shouted a great burly fellow with a big
laughing voice, an artist; and added: “Tiens! what a Juno, hein!”
Liane turned her pretty back upon them, and the wit ran down.
She came back to her seat beside Doome; sat down; and laid a hand
upon his sleeve:
“It was thy fault,” she said.
Doome looked at her grimly:
“Now call me a fool, Liane,” said he grimly.
The tears came to her eyes.
Gaston Latour went and sat down beside her, touched her hand:
“Hist!” said he—“Liane, you must not contradict him. It is the
privilege of genius to utter the truth.”
She turned to him, the tears in her eyes giving way to sad laughter.
Latour, with mock absent-mindedness, kissed her:
“Oh, pardon—I forgot,” said he; and so led back the laughter.
Doome smiled:
“You must forgive Gaston, Liane,” he said. “He forgets everything—
he even forgets himself.”
The girl leaned on Doome’s shoulder, turned to Latour:
“He says I am to forgive you, Gaston,” said she. “I love him.”
She took Doome’s hand in her lap, and stroked his fingers between
her gloved hands.
“I love the English,” she said.
Gaston looked shocked:
“Oh no—not so many as that!” said he, “it isn’t proper....”

As Betty, led by a waiter, and followed by Moll Davenant and Noll

and the Five Foolish Virgins, peering at the light, entered the flare of
the café, looking for places, unable to find seats under the awning
outside, she heard her name called, and, looking round upon the
merry crowd, she saw Babette signing to her to go to their table.
But Noll had been recognised, and there were loud shouts for him
about the café, and hands held out. His genial ways, his frank
habits, his kindly tact, had early won the hearts of the rollicking
student crew, and he had soon passed from “Monsieur” to surname,
from surname to Christian name, translated to heathen
barbarianisms, to Noll, mon vieux, old man.... Dick Davenant and
the other Foolish Virgins came in for a like ovation from “the boys.”
And it was with some difficulty that they managed to struggle
through the genial riot after Betty and join those that sat at Doome’s
table. Quogge Myre and Aubrey took advantage of the chance to
join the party.
Babette held Betty’s hand now, and prattled happily. She pointed out
to Betty’s keen eyes the many beauties present, told their histories
with light touch, without malice and without exaggeration—just the
simple picturesque sketch. And always the end was the same.
Suzanne yonder, with the glorious hair like copper, she was the
companion of that artist—he would arrive—oh, yes, the world would
hear of him. Suzanne had been a model at the studios—but the
hours were long—it was very fatiguing—the walls of the studio were
grey and bare—she hated dull gowns—she went to the Bal Bullier—
the next morning the studio was very grey—she was cross and
sleepy—the students were surly—it’s so stupid to stand and be
drawn—stupid and tedious and tiresome—she would go no more—at
the cafés one can do as one likes—the cafés were gay—she had
found a bourgeois—he was dull, but she had silk dresses instead of
gowns of stuff—still, he was a bore—so she left him and came back
to the cafés—the students were always gay—the café always bright
——
Ah, yes, that was Mimi—she had been a dressmaker—she too had
gone to the Bal Bullier—and had become the companion of a law
student—it was hard to keep the pot boiling, but she had been
happy—then his five years of quartier latin were up, and he had
gone home again and married and become bourgeois and
respectable—so she came to the café, where the students are
always gay and the lights are always bright, and she liked to wear
silks and fine linen.
Betty touched her arm:
“And after that?” she asked.
Babette shrugged her shoulders:
“Perhaps she will marry a tradesman,” she said. “Perhaps——” She
gave it up.
“And after that?”
Babette kissed Betty’s serious face:
“Thou odd inquirer,” said she. “If you ask after that and after that,
why we grow old one day—and after that die—and after that are
buried—and after that, who cares?”
She laughed, and stroked Betty’s hand:
“Ah, and that is Marcelle—she was apprentice to a sempstress—but
the work was hard, the hours long, oh so long, and the food scarce
and poor—and she has only once to live—and she has Titian red hair
—she, too, came to the cafés, where the students are always gay
and the lights are——”
There was a shout of laughter from the students.
Out of the riot the quavering voice of age rose in broken falsetto,
singing a snatch of song that was on the town in Betty’s childhood, a
soprano passage from an old Italian opera.
An old woman, with blear watery eyes, her tattered and rusty old
dress hanging in an untidy bunch about her shrunken body, a few
grey hairs straggling over her withered leaden face, was singing in
the full operatic manner. A strange pathetic sight. So an old
harpsichord sounds, awaking startled ghosts in some old-world room
at the rude touch of living hands.
The end of the broken song was received with loud laughter from
the students, who shrieked and coughed until the tears stood in
their eyes—they flung pence at the old woman’s feet. Women were
standing on tables, students were crowded in a ring about her.
“Thou hast danced with Victor Hugo, Margot, my pearl—show us
how!” cried a bearded cub from the schools.
She bowed—gathered up her seedy tattered skirts with something of
the old-world grand manner that went with the stately crinoline,
and, showing down-at-heel boots of the elastic-sided variety that are
called “jemimas,” her feet got shuffling to the steps of an old dance
of the quarter. In the sunken hollows of the wan old face hovered
the ghost of the set smile that dancers smile, baring toothless gums
—the lights flickered but feebly in her lamp of life—she skipped the
steps now right, now left, now back, now forward, with the stiff
travesty of old age—and set the tables in a roar. A grotesque
attempt at high-kicking brought down thunders of applause. The
sous showered upon the floor.
She picked up the scattered money with pathetic weary old hands;
bowed to the applause, and taking her way stiffly through the café,
passed out into the night.
And to Betty it was as though the shadow of death had passed
amongst the revellers. Ay, even youth must come to that—the
mockery and ghost of its dead self.
“Ah, that is old Margot.” Babette touched Betty’s hand. “She comes
out so at night—it was here she had her triumphs fifty years ago.”
“And—the end?”
Babette shrugged:
“She is rich,” she said—“she comes out so at night—but in the day
she is rich. She has a villa in the country. Oh, but yes ... Gaston
Latour has seen it. Last year. Ah, she was so droll—she had sung a
love-song in the tenderest manner. Gaston gave her a gold piece by
mistake for silver. She was here the next night—Gaston also. He told
her. “Bien!” said old Margot, and gave him her card.... He went by
rail—the villa was on a lake—charming. He knocked. A servant
opened the door. He was shown into a salon. Madame would come
in a moment. Madame Margot came. Ah, yes, said she, the twenty-
franc piece! She opened a cabinet and gave it to him. Gaston,
dumbfounded, thanked her, was retiring towards the door thanking
her, apologizing. She put her hand on his sleeve: ‘But, monsieur has
forgotten the franc!’”
Betty smiled:
“Who is she?” asked she.
“The old woman once lived with a student who came to great fame,
and——”
She shrugged her shoulders. She turned suddenly and gazed hard at
Betty:
“There are tears in your eyes,” she said. “What are you thinking of,
my dear?”
Betty sighed, and said hoarsely:
“The waste of women—the waste of women.”

That evening, Aubrey cast his evil eyes upon Moll Davenant.
He sat beside her, showered upon her the subtle flattery of his whole
attention, was soon in touch with her thwarted ambitions, was
sharing her dreams—and before the evening was out he had set a
hedge of confidences round about her that isolated her, with him as
sole companion, from the rest of her fellows. With all the moods of
her frail talents he was swiftly intimate; and, as he sat leaning
forward, his cheek on his hand, gazing intently at her, where she
lolled back at his side, his eyes took in every turn and line of the
strange pallid beauty of her hungry features. He put off his outward
conceit and interested her in herself—as he himself was interested
——
There was a loud shout.
A number of the students and their young women rose, and each
dragging a chair behind him along the floor, they formed into line,
and marched round the café, singing a student song.
Thrice round the café, and flinging down the chairs, they streamed
out into the street....
At the door Betty kissed Babette good-night; and it was at this
moment, as their party stood about, that Betty, taking Moll
Davenant’s arm, was accosted by Quogge Myre, who at once
assumed the tone towards her that he considered so fascinating to
women—a tone of chivalrous condescension. Betty fretted under the
attention of his repulsive eyes. She did not like the man—his intent
regard could not escape her. He was asking if he might call upon
her; and she was answering that she was denying herself all social
calls until she had finished a work on which she was engaged, when
he put out his hand familiarly and with his fingers flipped the ends of
the ruffle that she wore:
“You look nice and fresh,” he said.
Betty turned her back upon him. He always affected her like filth;
when he spoke it was as if filth could speak.
She slipped her hand through Molly’s arm.
Horace Malahide, who had watched the incident, laughed:
“Come, Babette!” said he—“we’ll see Noll and Betty and Moll home.”
Betty drew Moll Davenant away as Aubrey put his heels together and
gave his bow like a dancing-master.
“Come, Moll,” said she, and squeezing the girl’s arm, she added in a
laughing whisper—“and I’ll find Eustace to-morrow.”
To her surprise there was no answering smile.

As Aubrey and Myre turned out into the night together, Aubrey
looked at the other out of the corner of his eyes:
“That’s a very beautiful woman who—snubbed you—Myre,” said he.
Myre shrugged his shoulders:
“A woman should require winning,” he said. He licked his puffy
underlip sullenly.
They walked awhile in silence.
“They say that she’s Baddlesmere’s wife,” Aubrey said—“and a
prude.”
Quilliam O’Flaherty Macloughlin Myre laughed:
“Oh, they all like their squeeze,” said he.
They walked some way down the street.
Aubrey sighed; and after awhile he said absently:
“I have never loved a consumptive woman yet. And I have found
one—it will be a strange emotional experience.”
“Oh, she’s consumptive, the faded lily, is she?” growled Myre. Aubrey
smiled:
“She is beautiful,” he said—“and she has a hectic mind.”
 CHAPTER LIV
Wherein the Widow Snacheur separates the Milk from Human
Kindness
In a large and shabby room on the ground floor of the court, a dark
blur in the gloom of the gathering dusk, crouched rather than sat
the widow Snacheur—La bête noire, the street urchins had it in
awed whisper, thrusting out mocking chins behind her back.
With hard old fingers she was smoothing out upon the bare table the
crumpled sheet of newspaper which she had just unfolded from a
package sent by a tradesman; the hawklike eyes strained to read the
print, but the fading daylight smudged the page.
She drew her soiled black shawl more closely about her bent
shoulders:
She lifted up a reedy voice:
“Madelaine!” she cried harshly.
A door opened, and there stepped through the opened way a lean
girl of fourteen, the drudge that is called maid-of-all-work.
“Yes, madame,” said Madelaine, or what was the half-starved
embodiment of Madelaine, her long bare arms thrust out through
her turned-up sleeves, her dingy black dress a world too short for
her and showing bare legs, her stockingless feet in down-at-heels
boots that had already served another owner.
The child held herself insolently. Indeed, the old woman Snacheur
had beaten her the night before, falling upon the slender shoulders
with a stout stick; and for the first time the girl had flown at the
brutality and struck back—the old woman shuffling backwards into a
corner of the room before the onslaught, retreating in sullen
surprise, wiping a long tingling nose with the back of a sinewy hand
as the pain sent the tears trickling down the runnels of her withered
cheeks. Through scowling evil eyes she had realized that the harsh
thrashings of these poor lean shoulders were at an end—that the
four years of grim domination since she had taken this poor outcast
child to be her drudge were gone—and that whatever cruelty of
starvation and neglect her miserly wits might still impose upon her
hungry years, the rod had fallen from her gloating fingers and the
blue weals upon the poor thin shoulders were painted with the
hellish brand of her cruel hand for the last time. The child was
springing up into starved youth—nay, girlhood was almost gone—
indeed, within the gaunt body lurked some strange hint of
womanhood, smiling forth even from the starved body of this
hireling thing.
“Yes, madame,” said Madelaine.
The brooding old woman came back out of the humiliating past:
“There are halfpence on the table,” she said—“go and buy milk—and
see that the thieving beast gives you full measure—there was no
milk in the neck of the bottle last night—he is a scoundrel—unless
you drank it on the way and are yourself the thief.”
Madelaine shrugged her lean shoulders, and gathered up the
halfpence. As she left the room the old woman called after her:
“And see that you are back before the darkness—there will be no
light to show you to bed.”
When the child had gone, the old woman arose and shuffled to a
cupboard. She listened to the girl fumbling at the latch of the outer
door—heard her depart—waited so until the brisk footsteps died
away into the traffic of the street. Searching in her skirts for a bunch
of keys, she glanced carefully round the darkening room, opened the
cupboard door, and took out an old tin canister. She held the canister
to the fading light of the high window, chose an end of candle from
some others, and carefully locked up the tin in the cupboard again.
She set the candle in a bottle and lit it.
Sitting down by the table again, she smoothed out the crumpled
newspaper.
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