as lawmakers passed new deal programs to end the depression, senator robert lafollette wanted to measure nation's economy. the greatest economic crisis in our history is a grave national emergency, which makes it imperative that we fight the depression on all fronts. congress must formulate a sound program to this end. lafollette's senate resolution directed the commerce department to estimate national income for the three previous years. dr. carol carson has studied the developments of national income accounts during the depression. you could look down your block and see that people were unemployed, but they didn't know what was happening nationwide. they were after aggregate statistics. simon kuznets was called in to direct the government study. he'd been working on income estimates for the national bureau of economic research. the lack of information about the economy was, in kuznets' words "a scandal." the data were "neither fish nor flesh nor even red herring." kuznets found he would be working with economist robert nathan one of his former students. he had me measuring things for w