A number of bloggers and others have posted what they consider the more valuable economic charts for 2011. I
posted six examples last week in hopes of spurring readers to present some they have seen or created on their own. A few people obliged.
The year-end wrap up itch has spurred some more posting of 2011 charts hither and yon. Here are four from the 28 selected as the year's best by Derek Thompson at The Atlantic, as well as six others from various sources.
Each of these deserve a thorough examination of its own, and most have gotten some of that where they first appeared. For my year-end retrospective purposes, I've condensed the explanation let the chart speak for itself or grouped them in such a way that adding text is redundant. A word of caution: Just because someone is quoted in the explanation of a chart doesn't necessarily mean I agree with them.
If you've got additions, I'd love to see them in the comment thread. If you'd like to create some charts of your own, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis has a tool plugged into its database here.
"On the two-year anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, we should look back with satisfaction that we have seen the American clean energy industry through a rough period in the global economy. However, the United States risks ceding its gains and falling dangerously behind its competitors without continuing investment. Many conservatives oppose such investments. Without it, the United States will see an exodus of firms and capital to countries that are growing their clean tech industries, particularly China and Germany. U.S. private-sector firms lament a lack of clear and consistent policy on clean energy. This stymies investment and slows job creation
—Bracken Hendricks, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
"Many conservatives have attacked the Obama administration's effort to invest in emerging clean energy technologies, including wind and solar electricity generation. Yet they defend longstanding tax breaks for the mature oil and gas (O&G), and nuclear industries. However, the federal government annually spends an average of thirteen times more money on the oil and gas industry compared to investments in renewable energy."
—Richard Caperton, Director of Clean Energy Investment, Center for American Progress
"This recession is marked by a massive investment drought in the U.S., which will have long-term negative consequences. The proof: In the latest quarter, net domestic investment was only 3.3% of net national product, compared to 8.0% in 2007. There's been a rebound in investment since 2009, but it's been very mild--far less than the country needs."
—Michael Mandel, chief economist, Progressive Policy Institute
While productivity has has risen significantly, most Americans have seen their wages stagnate, at best. If the median household income had kept up with economic growth since 1970, Mother Jones magazine calculates it would now be nearly $92,000, not $50,000.
When we talk about 30-plus years of stagnant wages, we're definitely not talking about what's happening with the 1%.
You may remember this stunning graphic that was widely circulated in the spring after The New York Times took notice of the research of the work of Dan Ariely of Duke University and Michael I. Norton of Harvard Business School. In their study of 5000 people,
Building a Better America — One Wealth Quintile At a Time, they found that Americans think the inequality of wealth in the United States is much worse than they think and that most them desire something a good deal more egalitarian than the actual ratio of inequality.
Correlation is not always causation
"The chart shows real GDP in the U.S. and the level of total civilian employment from 2002-2011. The total output of the U.S. economy in Q3 of this year finally increased to a level above the output in the fourth quarter of 2007, when the recession started (blue line). In other words, the U.S. economy has now made a complete recovery from the 2007-2009 recession. But the labor market is still struggling to recover. We have 6.6 million fewer jobs today in the U.S. than in December 2007 when the recession started (red line in chart), along with a 8.6% unemployment rate, and thus another "jobless recovery."
—Mark J. Perry, Ph.D., visiting fellow, American Enterprise Institute
In between Gilded Age I and Gilded Age II, salaries and bonuses in the financial services were kept in check.
A middle-class American's household income is wages is about 4/10ths of one percent what the average Fortune 500 CEO collects.
Sources for these and other charts include:
Mother Jones
Ezra Klein at Wonkblog
BBC
Economic Policy Institute
Calculated Risk
Econbrowser
Derek Thompson at The Atlantic
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
The Bonddad Blog
dshort.com Advisor Perspectives