Damping economic cycles.

Does government intervention damp economic cycles? Hmmm. According to the above chart from a Financial Times article by Samuel Brittan the anwer would seem to be "a bit". But the improvement over the last 150 years has been short of spectacular.

This chart is unfortunately not visible on the online version of the article.

Afterthought (11th May): Fluctuations in the consumer price index see to have been similarly moderated. See chart here.