Fun With Charts

Brad DeLong's twitter feed just brought me to an excellent set of charts showing the last two years of our economic disaster.  Basically, this is chart porn.  If you love economic charts, you need to check this out.

Below are a few samples.  Clink on the link for more.

The Ugly Truth

Ezra Klein nails it on his blog (link).

Democrats won their massive majority because of an economic collapse. They've passed so much legislation because they have a massive majority based on an economic collapse. But the economic collapse isn't over. And having a lot more seats than the other party means 1) voters blame you for the condition of the country, and 2) you have a lot of seats to lose. What the bad economy and the huge majority giveth, the bad economy and the huge majority taketh away. Om. 

If there's a tension here, it's in the way that public opinions and the system interact -- or, more specifically, the way they don't. You can look at this and ask why Democrats passed all this legislation that made them unpopular. But if Democrats had sat around and done nothing after the stimulus, does anyone think they'd be more popular? On some level, Democrats understand that if people's incomes had gone up over the last year, their agenda would be popular enough, but that in the presence of persistent joblessness, they're going to lose the election. The only thing to do in the meantime is try and pass legislation that'll make the country better off. That's what they've done, or at least what they think they've done.

It's ugly in the sense that policy is irrelevant to the outcome of most elections.  I'd really like to believe that this isn't true, and political parties would be rewarded and punished on the basis of the policies that they enacted or blocked.  But, as usual, the relationship is much clearer than that.  Here's the chart Ezra uses to demonstrate the correlation:

Why not pay more for less?

First, three points:

1.  Health care costs will drive the long-run federal deficit.
2.  Our current health care system is one of the lowest international performers.
3.  We spend more on health care than anybody.

For more on that second point , here's Ezra Klein (link) quoting from the most recent commonwealth fund report (link):

But even with all that spending, "the U.S. ranks last overall, as it did in the 2007, 2006, and 2004 editions of Mirror, Mirror. Most troubling, the U.S. fails to achieve better health outcomes than the other countries, and as shown in the earlier editions, the U.S. is last on dimensions of access, patient safety, coordination, efficiency, and equity. The Netherlands ranks first, followed closely by the U.K. and Australia."

The issue isn't just that we don't have universal health care. Our delivery system underperforms, too. "Even when access and equity measures are not considered, the U.S. ranks behind most of the other countries on most measures. With the inclusion of primary care physician survey data in the analysis, it is apparent that the U.S. is lagging in adoption of national policies that promote primary care, quality improvement, and information technology."

As we begin to see health care change over the next five years, it will be very important to keep an eye on these metrics.  If the US doesn't find a way to improve, more change will absolutely be necessary.

Here are some illustrative charts from Ezra's post:

That's the Way You Do It

When the crazzies wake-up, the deficit solution becomes apparent.  It's called the budget deals of 1990 and 1993.  Here's a key chart from Jonathan Chiat's excellent post "Conservatives Ignore Their One Proven Success" :

(Hat Tip: Matt Yglesias)

Unemployment Still Bad

But here's a cool chart from Calculated Risk that puts our woes into historical perspective (OK, very recent history. 1976) :

Looking for a job?  Would you consider moving to North Dakota?
Source

It's The _____s Fault

Personally, I blame myself.  I woke up one morning and took a good look in the mirror.  Anyway, if you want to blame somebody else, have fun with this chart.

Hat Tip: The Big Picture

Projected Returns > Actual Returns

I'm really enjoying this graph.

Basically, be wary of analyst projections.  They seem to be off by a factor of two.
Source
Hat Tip: Paul Kedrosky

Not So Happy Owning in Nevada

Check out the chart below:

That's 70% of homeowners have negative equity.  Let me repeat that number.  70%.
(Hat tip:  Marginal Revolution)

Europe Growth Forecast Chart

Nice interactive chart for seeing the growth forecast in europe.  The 'PIGS' look like you'd expect them to (bad).  I was a little surprised by France's high unemployment rate.  Here's the link to the chart (where you can actually play with it).

Hat tip: Barry Ritholtz

My Favorite Employment Chart

And the job news is positive. I'm still not expecting a robust recovery, but the trend looks much better than it did for the past couple years.

Source