Finance Archive:

Catherine Mulbrandon visualizes how long it takes to pay off a new computer making the minimum payment versus $100/month.

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I’m posting this more because it’s an example of a well designed cartogram map, more than because of the content. (via)

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Ok, I’m pretty bored with the debt graphics, but Barry Ritholtz today had a few that illustrate the problem quite well.

This one makes clear our deficit is as much a result of falling revenue as it is of rising spending:

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The same numbers in percent of GDP make sense when you take the recession shading into account:

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I highly recommend you read the article and discussion over there.

Four perfect graphs from the NYT (as usual) putting the debt crisis into perspective.

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Thanks to Kanal Eliezer for sending in the link!

WTFnoway.com presents literal visualizations of how many Benjamins the US debt really amounts to.

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An interesting chart on different benchmarks that are required by the Bill. At closer inspection though, you realize all it does is describe the sections and count the requirements. It would have been nice if you could drill down and see the details of each of the colored lines, for example. The main impression remains, however: the Bill’s implementation is very complicated – which I suppose is in contrast to the wide agreement that it doesn’t actually solve any of our financial systems’ problems.

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An interactive map and table of the test results, showing debt levels by bank.

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note: access to some FT features require a subscription.

A pretty comprehensive explanation of the financial crisis. (via The Big Picture)

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My favorite economic status tool. Point and/or click on anything and everything to learn something new about the economy, and why you should care.

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Based on these indicators, things are returning to normal.

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An 85 foot long annotated timeline of early American financial and industrial history. Similar to the 1775-1943 Booms and Busts timeline I posted last year, this one isn’t quite as technical, but the historical notes are fascinating: 1877: “Guaranteed Mtges coming into use”, 1899: “100 taxis in New York”, 1910: “Movie censorship being demanded”.  (via)

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

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Karl Hartig was creating beautiful complex data visualizations back when most of us “graphics experts” were still trying to figure out how to change colors in excel.  Here is a selection of his work on population, electronics, energy, stocks, immigration, politics, and music. Soak it up!

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Despite media spin, the United States is a long way from getting all of the bailout money back. (via Ritholtz)

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No it’s not a musical. Artist Bard Edlund’s “Dow Piano” translates the performance of the Dow each day onto a three octave scale, and adjusts the volume of each note according to trading volume. I guess instead of data visualization we could call this data audioization – or we could just call it cool.

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