US Economy Archive:

For fairly intelligent discussion of whether this means anything, check out the comments over at The Big Picture.

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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. Looks like a lot of indicators are finally in the “typical” range.

Things might be getting back to normal.

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Not the prettiest chart, and maybe it should be an index instead of different axis, but the overall point remains the same.

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An excellent annotated analysis by the NYT looking at federal, state, and corporate tax brackets.

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From the generally impartial Pew Center:

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Increase in federal support to states during recession:

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Where the federal grant money went as percent of state revenue:

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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. Looks like a lot of indicators are finally in the “typical” range.

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So how are most of us doing in terms of achieving the “American Dream”?

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Interactive graph of where the money comes from to pay medical bills (private insurance, medicare, out of pocket, etc).  It’s interesting that private insurance still only covers a small amount of total expenses (~39%).

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A look at drought through the years. There’s also a nice article about the design decisions and process that went into it.

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Prepared for a PBS-UK television show (also available on DVD), these visualizations are stunning:

Electrical grid:
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Flights:
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radio towers:
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Here’s a preview of the show:

The debate over whether it’s cheaper to rent or buy a house is complicated (where you buy, down payment, size of house, etc). But looking at median prices across the nation and current insanely low mortgage rates can make now look like the best time in a while to buy. Read the comment thread on the linked blog if you want more nuance.

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If you want even more nuance, particularly if you’re buying a house as an investment, I recommend Barry Ritholtz’s 5 part article Debunking the Housing Recovery Story.

I usually don’t like viewing stacked bars over time – it’s too hard to see what’s changing. This one still isn’t perfect, but the deficiencies are moderated somewhat by clear labels and only having the three columns. Content wise, it’s pretty fascinating too.

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