WTF Happened in 1971
Shares rank 21 of 31 interactive visualizations by recommenders
People recommend it for its many long-run economic charts since 1971, which they find interesting and fun to browse. Critics say the chart selection is cherry-picked and not unbiased.
People recommend it for its many long-run economic charts since 1971, which they find interesting and fun to browse. Critics say the chart selection is cherry-picked and not unbiased.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 63%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 1.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Many graphs of major inflection points
“excellent graphs of the endless major inflection points”
Comment from 4 Apr 2026 in “Gold overtakes U.S. Treasuries as the largest foreign reserve asset” “That is an impressive number of graphs and very cool!”
Comment from 7 Mar 2026 in “US economy sheds 92,000 jobs in February in sharp slide” Interesting and fun to browse
“It's not exactly an unbiased selection but it is interesting.”
Comment from 27 Aug 2026 in “U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications” “it's cherry picked, but still funny to see all those charts”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “No Raise, No Promotion: 1 in 4 White-Collar Workers Are Stalling Out”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Cherry-picked, not unbiased selection
“It's not exactly an unbiased selection but it is interesting.”
Comment from 27 Aug 2026 in “U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications” “it's cherry picked, but still funny to see all those charts”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “No Raise, No Promotion: 1 in 4 White-Collar Workers Are Stalling Out”
Other interactive visualizations people recommend
The four most recommended other interactive visualizations, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ciechanow.ski | 33 | 1 | 97% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Size of Life | 30 | 4 | 88% | 2 | — | — |
| PGSimCity | 27 | 3 | 90% | 1 | — | — |
| Ithihāsas | 18 | 3 | 86% | 1 | — | — |
| WTF Happened in 1971This page | 5 | 3 | 63% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
All 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“is worth a (re-)read since I gather this is more of a more macro-structural outcome”
“That very first image uses a different inflation indices for each of the two lines in the graph.”
“It's not exactly an unbiased selection but it is interesting.”
“Weird site, seems to completely ignore the oil shock and following grave errors with loose monetary policy.”
“it's cherry picked, but still funny to see all those charts”
“a site that tries to argue for the reintroduction of the gold standard through a gish-gallop of random charts”
“excellent graphs of the endless major inflection points”
“That is an impressive number of graphs and very cool!”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.