[pastProlog]

During the 2008 recession, Monthly Review put together some scary 1960-2008 charts on economic indicators not mentioned in this article ( http://monthlyreview.org/2008/12/01/financial-implosion-and-... ).

Often overlooked is the capacity utilization rate - at what rate is capital plant being utilized. This number has been falling since the early 1970s. On the latest dwindling bounce of the ball, it hit a peak in November 2014 with 78.9%, and has since fallen to 75.4% ( http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g17/revisions/Current... ).

So the 2009-2016 industrial capacity peak was 78.9%. I don't have the data in front of me, but my recollection is from World War II to the early 1970s, the industrial capacity of the US never dipped as low as 78.9%. So the modern capacity utilization peaks are less than the old historical lows.