You can download the data used for Consumer Product Index in “Stuck on Stupid.” Click on the text in the text box, select it with CTL-A, copy it to the clipboard with CTL-C, and paste it into a spreadsheet.

year	cpi	cpi_change
1900	2500	0	
1901	2500	0	
1902	2600	4	
1903	2700	3.85	
1904	2700	0	
1905	2700	0	
1906	2700	0	
1907	2800	3.7	
1908	2700	-3.57	
1909	2700	0	
1910	2800	3.7	
1911	2800	0	
1912	2900	3.57	
1913	2970	2.41	
1914	3010	1.35	
1915	3040	1	
1916	3270	7.57	
1917	3840	17.43	
1918	4510	17.45	
1919	5180	14.86	
1920	6000	15.83	
1921	5360	-10.67	
1922	5020	-6.34	
1923	5110	1.79	
1924	5120	0.2	
1925	5250	2.54	
1926	5300	0.95	
1927	5200	-1.89	
1928	5130	-1.35	
1929	5130	0	
1930	5000	-2.53	
1931	4560	-8.8	
1932	4090	-10.31	
1933	3880	-5.13	
1934	4010	3.35	
1935	4110	2.49	
1936	4150	0.97	
1937	4300	3.61	
1938	4220	-1.86	
1939	4160	-1.42	
1940	4200	0.96	
1941	4410	5	
1942	4880	10.66	
1943	5180	6.15	
1944	5270	1.74	
1945	5390	2.28	
1946	5850	8.53	
1947	6690	14.36	
1948	7210	7.77	
1949	7140	-0.97	
1950	7210	0.98	
1951	7780	7.91	
1952	7950	2.19	
1953	8010	0.75	
1954	8050	0.5	
1955	8020	-0.37	
1956	8140	1.5	
1957	8430	3.56	
1958	8660	2.73	
1959	8730	0.81	
1960	8870	1.6	
1961	8960	1.01	
1962	9060	1.12	
1963	9170	1.21	
1964	9290	1.31	
1965	9450	1.72	
1966	9720	2.86	
1967	10000	2.88	
1968	10420	4.2	
1969	10980	5.37	
1970	11630	5.92	
1971	12150	4.47	
1972	12540	3.21	
1973	13320	6.22	
1974	14790	11.04	
1975	16140	9.13	
1976	17070	5.76	
1977	18180	6.5	
1978	19560	7.59	
1979	21780	11.35	
1980	0	0	
1981	0	0	
1982	0	0	
1983	0	0	
1984	0	0	
1985	0	0	
1986	0	0	
1987	0	0	
1988	0	0	
1989	0	0	
1990	0	0	
1991	0	0	
1992	0	0	
1993	0	0	
1994	0	0	
1995	0	0	
1996	0	0	
1997	0	0	
1998	0	0	
1999	0	0	
2000	0	0	
2001	0	0	
2002	0	0	
2003	0	0	
2004	0	0	
2005	0	0	
2006	0	0	
2007	0	0	
2008	0	0	
2009	0	0	
2010	0	0

Year	Consumer Product Index	Annual CPI Change
1900	2500	0
1901	2500	0
1902	2600	4
1903	2700	3.85
1904	2700	0
1905	2700	0
1906	2700	0
1907	2800	3.7
1908	2700	-3.57
1909	2700	0
1910	2800	3.7
1911	2800	0
1912	2900	3.57
1913	2970	2.41
1914	3010	1.35
1915	3040	1
1916	3270	7.57
1917	3840	17.43
1918	4510	17.45
1919	5180	14.86
1920	6000	15.83
1921	5360	-10.67
1922	5020	-6.34
1923	5110	1.79
1924	5120	0.2
1925	5250	2.54
1926	5300	0.95
1927	5200	-1.89
1928	5130	-1.35
1929	5130	0
1930	5000	-2.53
1931	4560	-8.8
1932	4090	-10.31
1933	3880	-5.13
1934	4010	3.35
1935	4110	2.49
1936	4150	0.97
1937	4300	3.61
1938	4220	-1.86
1939	4160	-1.42
1940	4200	0.96
1941	4410	5
1942	4880	10.66
1943	5180	6.15
1944	5270	1.74
1945	5390	2.28
1946	5850	8.53
1947	6690	14.36
1948	7210	7.77
1949	7140	-0.97
1950	7210	0.98
1951	7780	7.91
1952	7950	2.19
1953	8010	0.75
1954	8050	0.5
1955	8020	-0.37
1956	8140	1.5
1957	8430	3.56
1958	8660	2.73
1959	8730	0.81
1960	8870	1.6
1961	8960	1.01
1962	9060	1.12
1963	9170	1.21
1964	9290	1.31
1965	9450	1.72
1966	9720	2.86
1967	10000	2.88
1968	10420	4.2
1969	10980	5.37
1970	11630	5.92
1971	12150	4.47
1972	12540	3.21
1973	13320	6.22
1974	14790	11.04
1975	16140	9.13
1976	17070	5.76
1977	18180	6.5
1978	19560	7.59
1979	21780	11.35
1980	0	0
1981	0	0
1982	0	0
1983	0	0
1984	0	0
1985	0	0
1986	0	0
1987	0	0
1988	0	0
1989	0	0
1990	0	0
1991	0	0
1992	0	0
1993	0	0
1994	0	0
1995	0	0
1996	0	0
1997	0	0
1998	0	0
1999	0	0
2000	0	0
2001	0	0
2002	0	0
2003	0	0
2004	0	0
2005	0	0
2006	0	0
2007	0	0
2008	0	0
2009	0	0
2010	0	0

Consumer Price Index:
The US Census Bureau maintains a time series, E-135: Consumer Price Indexes (all items) from 1800 to 1970.
Bicentennial Edition: Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, Part 1
E. Prices and Price Indexes: Series E-135; p.211 (pdf)

Why Stuck on Stupid?

Seventy years ago the leaders of both US political parties turned away from the policies that had created an economic powerhouse we call the Roaring Twenties. For ten long years Americans suffered through wrenching economic dislocations: deflation, inflation, a four-year economic contraction, endless unemployment, mindless political experiments, and ruthless attacks on businessmen for political gain as their leaders stayed Stuck on Stupid.

Today, after a twenty-five year economic boom, Americans are once more faced with a political elite that wants to monkey with success. It wants to raise tax rates. It wants to restrict trade. It wants to increase government power.

It‘s time to look back and remind ourselves how it came to be, starting in 1929, that America got itself Stuck on Stupid. Otherwise it could happen again.

1929-1939: “A Decade that will live — in stupidity.”

Education

“We have met with families in which for weeks together, not an article of sustenance but potatoes had been used; yet for every child the hard-earned sum was provided to send them to school.”
E. G. West, Education and the State

Mutual Aid

In 1911... at least nine million of the 12 million covered by national insurance were already members of voluntary sick pay schemes. A similar proportion were also eligible for medical care.
Green, Reinventing Civil Society

Government Expenditure

The Union publishes an exact return of the amount of its taxes; I can get copies of the budgets of the four and twenty component states; but who can tell me what the citizens spend in the administration of county and township?
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Democratic Capitalism

Three dynamic and converging systems functioning as one: a democratic polity, an economy based on markets and incentives, and a moral-cultural system which is plural and, in the largest sense, liberal.
Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism