1974 and 2008, Graphs That Lie (Or do they?)

You and I know that graphs are used to spin the truth quite frequently. The 2008 charts had our heads spinning. So, I was very intrigued with what I found today. This evening I uncovered some interesting posts by Phil Gyford. His "graphs that lie" postings were everywhere. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

Why be concerned about lying with graphs? Because...

I just happened across three stock market charts earlier in the day compliments of google finance. Why had I not seen them before? Perhaps they've been posted elsewhere, but I haven't seen anyone point to them. We blogged about remember 1975, but I had never correlated the charts.

The first is the market graph for 2008... the second for 1974. If I would have blanked out the dates would you have been able to tell which chart was 2008 and which was 1974?


I know I've written that the past performance of the US Economy is no indication of future results. But don't these charts tempt you to look at the chart for 1975?

Here it is. I'll let you be the judge of whether it represents good news for 2009.


It reminds me a bit of what I wrote about back in early December: What goes down, must come up.