--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Yet just eighty years ago it still seemed…" description: "\"“Yet just eighty years ago it still seemed an impossible mission when U.S. President Herbert Hoover was tasked with beating back the Great Depression w..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/efd/rutger-bregman-2463_business_yet-just-eighty-years-ago-it-still-seeme_2878002.jpg" --- # Yet just eighty years ago it still seemed an impossible… ![“Yet just eighty years ago it still seemed an impossible mission when U.S. President Herbert Hoover was tasked with beating back the Great Depression with only a mixed bag of numbers, ranging from share values to the price of iron to the volume of road transport. Even his most important metric –…” quote by Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/efd/rutger-bregman-2463_business_yet-just-eighty-years-ago-it-still-seeme_2878002.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/efd/rutger-bregman-2463_business_yet-just-eighty-years-ago-it-still-seeme_2878002.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/efd/rutger-bregman-2463_business_yet-just-eighty-years-ago-it-still-seeme_2878002.jpg) > ““Yet just eighty years ago it still seemed an impossible mission when U.S. President Herbert Hoover was tasked with beating back the Great Depression with only a mixed bag of numbers, ranging from share values to the price of iron to the volume of road transport. Even his most important metric – the “blast-furnace index” – was little more than an unwieldy construct that attempted to pin down production levels in the steel industry. If you had asked Hoover how “the economy” was doing, he would have given you a puzzled look. Not only because this wasn’t among the numbers in his bag, but because he would have had no notion of our modern understanding of the word “economy.” “Economy” isn’t really a thing, after all – it’s an idea, and that idea had yet to be invented. In 1931, Congress called together the country’s leading statisticians and found them unable to answer even the most basic questions about the state of the nation. That something was fundamentally wrong seemed evident, but their last reliable figures dated from 1929. It was obvious that the homeless population was growing and that companies were going bankrupt left and right, but as to the actual extent of the problem, nobody knew. A few months earlier, President Hoover had dispatched a number of Commerce Department employees around the country to report on the situation. They returned with mainly anecdotal evidence that aligned with Hoover’s own belief that economic recovery was just around the bend. Congress wasn’t reassured, however. In 1932, it appointed a brilliant young Russian professor by the name of Simon Kuznets to answer a simple question: How much stuff can we make? Over the next few years, Kuznets laid the foundations of what would later become the GDP. His”” [Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Early economic measurement was vague, leading to poor policy; Kuznets created systematic national accounting to quantify output. **In simple terms:** Economy was hard to understand until systematic data like GDP were created. Key Takeaway Use reliable data to guide decisions. Themes economics policy measurement history statistics Mood analytical historical reflective Type statement historical educational When to use this quote - government planning - business forecasting - academic research - public policy - economic crisis Key Concepts national accounting GDP quantitative analysis macroeconomics Questions to Reflect On - How can we balance quantitative metrics with qualitative well‑being? - What limits do current economic indicators have? A Different Perspective Data alone cannot capture social welfare; numbers may miss human impact. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Business](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/business/) [Economic recovery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/economic-recovery/) [Economics](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/economics/) [Goals](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/goals/) [Great depression](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/great-depression/) [Herbert Hoover](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/herbert-hoover/) [Hoover Economy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/hoover-economy-3972456/) [Kuznets Answer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/kuznets-answer-3972457/) [Left and right](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/left-and-right/) [Years ago](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/years-ago/) [Years Kuznets](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/years-kuznets-3972458/) ## Related quotes > [“The dictionary says progress means moving forward. Herbert Hoover was just a boy in Iowa. 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Even his most important metric – the “blast-furnace index” – was little more than an unwieldy construct that attempted to pin down production levels in the steel industry. If you had asked Hoover how “the economy” was doing, he would have given you a puzzled look. Not only because this wasn’t among the numbers in his bag, but because he would have had no notion of our modern understanding of the word “economy.” “Economy” isn’t really a thing, after all – it’s an idea, and that idea had yet to be invented. In 1931, Congress called together the country’s leading statisticians and found them unable to answer even the most basic questions about the state of the nation. That something was fundamentally wrong seemed evident, but their last reliable figures dated from 1929. It was obvious that the homeless population was growing and that companies were going bankrupt left and right, but as to the actual extent of the problem, nobody knew. A few months earlier, President Hoover had dispatched a number of Commerce Department employees around the country to report on the situation. They returned with mainly anecdotal evidence that aligned with Hoover’s own belief that economic recovery was just around the bend. Congress wasn’t reassured, however. In 1932, it appointed a brilliant young Russian professor by the name of Simon Kuznets to answer a simple question: How much stuff can we make? Over the next few years, Kuznets laid the foundations of what would later become the GDP. 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