An 80's Flashback

It finally happened. The price of a barrel of oil hit $100 for the first time today, breaking through a psychological milestone and returning to the inflation-adjusted highs of 1980.

Of course, many of the traders on the floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange were still in diapers in 1980, the year the Pittsburgh Steelers won the Super Bowl and the U.S. boycotted the Moscow summer Olympics in protest of the invasion of Afghanistan. Chrysler got a government bailout and gold hit a record high. Reagan defeated Carter while the country was gripped by a hostage crisis in Iran. In New York, John Lennon was shot. In Dallas, everyone found out who shot J.R.

What else has changed?

Billboard 200 Top Album
Then: Pink Floyd, Another Brick in the Wall
Now: Josh Groban, Noel

U.S. short-term interest rate
Then: 11.4 percent
Now: 4.25 percent

DJIA
Then: 817
Now: 13,032

Price for an ounce of gold
Then: $873
Now: $860.10

30-Yr Fixed Mortgage Rate
Then: 12.88 percent
Now: 5.79 percent

GDP
Then: $2.8 trillion (nominal)
Now: $13.2 trillion

Nominal GDP per capita
Then: $12,249 (nominal)
Now: $44,190

U.S. Population
Then: 227.7 million
Now: 303.3 million

Exxon quarterly profit: $1.925 billion
Then: $1.9 billion
Now: $9.4 billion

Core inflation rate:
Then: 12.7 percent
Now: 2.3 percent

by Megan Barnett