Friday, June 5th. This date is notable in the realm of economics, for it marks three significant anniversaries in that science. Political economist Adam Smith was believed born on this date in 1723 in Scotland. In 1883, the prominent 20th century economist John Maynard Keynes was born in England. A Keynes contemporary noted that “If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion.” That’s the case with Smith and Keynes, as broadly speaking, they represent supply-side and demand-side economics. And on this date in 1933, the U.S. went off the gold standard, making the dollar a floating currency on the world market. To help businesses and governments sort out all this and more, there are around 2,900 economic consulting services across the nation. Profile America is in its 19th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Saturday, June 6th. A major pop culture phenomenon began on this date in 1933. With the automobile increasingly reshaping Americans’ habits, Richard Hollingshead opened the nation’s first drive-in movie theater in Camden, New Jersey. Soon, drive-in movies became a fixture across the country and a popular place for teenage dating and family outings. Drive-ins reached their peak in the 1950s. There were nearly 21,000 movie theaters then, and more than 4,000 of them were drive-ins. Now, there are nearly 4,600 movie theaters around the country — many, if not most of them with multiple screens — while there are about 350 drive-ins remaining in operation. You can find current data on the country’s economy by downloading the ‘America’s Economy’ mobile application at <www.census.gov/mobile>.
Sunday, June 7th. A home entertainment revolution began on this date in 1975, when the videocassette recorder was introduced. It was Sony’s Betamax format recorder, which in a very few years was superseded by the rival VHS format. Although Betamax was technically superior, VHS gained its dominance by being the first cassette to offer extended recording times. At its peak, some nine-out-of-10 households across the country had a VCR. Then the DVD was introduced in 1997, and now the rising format is the Blu-ray system, allowing video quality to match high-definition television sets. Renting out DVD and Blu-ray discs, and what’s left of videocassettes, is the business of over 4,700 shops in the U.S., engaging in a nearly $4.5 billion a year business. Profile America is in its 19th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.