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Each line rebased to 100 where the shared window begins — growth from a common base, not levels.

Revolving Credit Labor Productivity
Revolving CreditLabor Productivity Rebased to 100 at Jan 1968
1969-70 Recession1973-75 Recession1980 Recession1981-82 Recession1990-91 Recession2001 RecessionGlobal Financial CrisisCOVID-19 Recession20000400006000080000100000100 = Jan 1968197019801990200020102020Indexed to 100 · r = 0.98 over the overlap — correlation is not causation · econscout.com

Each series rebased to 100 at Jan 1968. revolving_credit, productivity · read from cache, latest-revised.

  • Revolving Credit

    Revolving consumer credit outstanding, mostly credit cards.

    Revolving consumer credit outstanding, mostly credit-card balances (Fed G.19).

  • Labor Productivity

    Output produced per hour worked, as an index.

    Nonfarm business sector real output per hour of all persons, indexed to 2017=100.

Each measured on its own terms — compare the lenses, not just the lines. Full lessons → Learn

r = 0.98 very strong correlation · 233 overlapping months

…and that proves nothing. Two lines moving together is not one moving the other. Almost any pair of trending economic series correlates highly — they share the same long climb of growth, prices, and population, or it is chance. r measures co-movement over this exact window, never cause. Change the range or swap a series and watch r move. Why correlation isn’t causation →