[BfloGuy]

From 1950-1980 nominal GDP grew at an annualized rate of 7.55%.

"Nominal GDP" means unadjusted for inflation.

As such, it's meaningless.

I don't care how pretty the charts are; without inflation, they're sawdust.

[WhoisAlanGreenspan?]

You're right. $1 in 1950 equals $3.42 in 1980 (241.9%). It's $9.88 in 2016 or 888.1% (1950 to 2016). Oddly, if you run 1980 = $1.00 out to 2016 $1 = $2.89 or just 189% inflation.

Of course, it could be a bad calculator No matter what you do the value of money is in somebody else's hands rather than your own.

But Mr. Lance Roberts (article author) seems to get the point across that we need to get back to a growing economy based on agriculture or manufacturing rather than sustaining debt to move forward.