Karl G. Karsten

Karl Gustaf Karsten (1891– May 25, 1968) was an American economist, statistician, businessman, inventor and author, known from his seminal work on graphical methods,[1][2] and economic forecasting.

In 1926 he became president and general manager of the Kardex Institute, a company founded in 1921 by James Rand, Jr. to collect and disseminate information on good business record-keeping and filing practices.

In the 1910s charts and graphs had become a prominent subject in the theoretical discussion of methodology in the social sciences,[8] and Karsten was one of the first to publish a book solely on this topic.

[9] Karsten (1923) explained: In and since the [First World] War the use and developments of charts has been almost phenomenal — so large, indeed, that one able economist who is interested in such things think that we as a country have gone chart-mad.

"[16] Kasten had founded Karsten Statistical Laboratory in New Haven, Connecticut, specifically to develop so called "barometers", to theoretically forecasts business conditions.

This work on scientific forecasting focussed on the methods and application to practical business and to stock market operations, and relied on the techniques of the economic barometers.

According to Keuzenkamp (1987) "Karsten was fairly optimistic about his abilities to make prognoses, but, as he had to admit, 'at the present time this investigation can not account for economic changes which are wholly due to the element of mob-, crowd- or herd-psychology'.

[18] In general, however, Karsten's conclusion is that these psychological factors are relatively unimportant, which leads him to find reason to state that his results support "economic determinism".