Chart Porn » Finance

Fortune 500

Dustin — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:06:21 +0000

The 2012 Fortune 500 is out (which basically rates companies by revenue). I like this presentation of sales vs profits:

There in also a charting of the Top 10 that let’s you take a look at revenue vs profits:

Debt Restructuring (1970-2012)

Dustin — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:16:03 +0000

Two charts examining the size of debt restructuring by countries. The second chart is more useful since it aggregates the restructurings of countries that had several over different years (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, etc).

Update: Economic Indicators Dashboard

Dustin — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 14:45:01 +0000

One of my favorite economic dashboards. It highlights major macro indicators, what direction they are trending, what the typical ranges are, and lets you drill down to explanations of why you should care about these numbers.

2012 Economic Freedom Map

Dustin — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 14:17:00 +0000

I’m not a fan of the Heritage Foundation, and the one time I dug into the data of their Economic Freedom Index I found that they occasionally compare apples and oranges to get around data scarcity – BUT: they do put a large research effort into the report each year. The below interactive map is well executed – but you should drill down to country level data to get a feel for what is really being measured (click on a country, then the “learn more about this country” link that pops up in the lower left. Why this requires two steps I have no idea).

Global Wealth

Dustin — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:23:00 +0000

There are a number of interesting and well designed charts in the 2011 Global Wealth Report from Credit Suisse. The private sector actually does a lot of good analysis and visualization work that just doesn’t get publicized much.

This one took me a minute to figure out – it’s showing distribution of wealth by decile:

There are a series of charts on wealth and age:

Thanks to Sean R for sending in the link!

Chinese Investment

Dustin — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:33:52 +0000

Wow. I didn’t realize China’s investment in the USA was so small.

European Debt

Dustin — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:23:37 +0000

A billion here, a billion there – soon you’re talking about real money.

News reports often focus on debt to gdp ratios, but it’s powerful to actually show the magnitudes of each, and compare the amounts already committed to what remains to be financed, as is done here by Spiegel:

A rawer way of looking at the debt of all of the PIIGS, in piles of euros:

This version shows who loaned Greece the money:

2012 Global Risk Map

Dustin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:43:58 +0000

The World Economic Forum always has some interesting visualizations and info-videos.

Global Risk Map:

Interactive Risk Explorer (be sure to play with the menu tabs on the right):

European Response to Crisis

Dustin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:59:00 +0000

Almost makes it look like they’ve done a lot:

Living in a QE World

Dustin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:09:00 +0000

Another problem brewing. The world is running out of places to kick the credit can. As usual, there is much insight to be gained from the discussion and comments over at Barry Ritholtz’s The Big Picture.

Update: Economic Indicators Dashboard

Dustin — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:01:00 +0000

Updated for January: one of my favorite economic dashboards. It highlights major macro indicators, what direction they are trending, what the typical ranges are, and lets you drill down to explanations of why you should care. In other words, it’s a very sleek example of how to graph snapshot data while still providing valuable context.

Financial Crises (1810-2010)

Dustin — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:26:37 +0000

A new graphic from HistoryShots, based on Reinhart & Rogoff’s well researched book: This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly. The top half of the chart maps financial crises in terms of GDP affected, while the bottom indicates number of sovereign defaults.

I just ordered a copy. If you’re into this long-term economic history stuff, check out US Booms and Busts (1775-1943).

Charting the Euro Zone Crisis

Dustin — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:04:17 +0000

A series of excellent annotated charts on the main indicators of the European crisis.

Interest Rates (1831-2011)

Dustin — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:57:00 +0000

An interesting long term perspective.

Economists’ Favorite Charts of 2011

Dustin — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:20:42 +0000

These 11 charts appeared on BBC, so they are very Euro-centric, but there are still some gems. My favorite:

For a long time the perception was that the creation of the euro meant sovereign risk was effectively the same across all countries. That of course proved to be wrong. The Lehman’s crisis and financial meltdown that followed affected the deficits and debt levels of different countries in different ways. Interestingly it is much the same countries now with very high yields as it was pre-euro, suggesting little has changed fundamentally in a decade.