ABSTRACT
Qualitative changes in thought, shifting social relationships and the uneven impact of recurring economic downswings produced ways of thinking about the economy which were not always substantiated by the hard data or the realities of the socio-economic situation. The pessimism which set in during the severe slump of the Seventies was not alleviated by the brief respite in the economic situation at the end of the decade. In developing a scheme of periodization and a paradigm for delineating changes in its incidence over a long interval, we must look to economic theory for assistance. Combined with the more complete English and Danish findings on correlations between trade cycles and unemployment, it will aid US in interpreting the scattered clues which have been left behind. It is also important to know whether there were correlations between migrations or arrests for begging and economic fluctuations if one attempts to assess these phenomena as indirect indicators of unemployment.
