Job Growth and the Recovery

David Leonardt in the New York Times has a great chart breaking down the job growth in 2010 and what that means for the shape and duration of the recovery. The general picture is not new, but the way it is described is quite useful and insightful.

Commodity Prices and Core Inflation

Paul Krugman has a good chart showing the relationship between commodity prices and the CPI - basically that commodity prices fluctuate greatly but the CPI has stayed the same - and how calls of hyperinflation seem overblown (at least for the foreseeable future)

Effect of Macroeconomic Policy

This chart from Brad DeLong's blog is a good visual of the effect of macroeconomic policy on macroeconomic stability.

The Winner is Germany

An article in the New York Times makes clear how much Germany, compared to other eurozone members, has gained in growing exports since the creation of the euro. As the chart below shows, Germany has gained at all levels - and might gain more as the euro falls in value.

African Cities

The Economist has a good graphic on the growth and size of African cities. The graphic can dispel the American image of Africa as a place of rural villages. This realization might impact what Americans might think of Africa and how to help it.

Euro Bond Graphics

Throughout the whole eurozone crisis, there has been the talk of setting up euro bonds. The idea is that instead of each euro country issuing bonds based on their individual credit, they could borrow based on the credit of the entire euro zone. This would allow the smaller poorer countries to benefit from Germany's lower rates. Since it is now clear, after Greece and Ireland, that the eurozone will bail out countries at risk of default, this idea is seeming more credible than it did a few months ago. The German magazine Spiegel posted this good graphic describing how this would work:

Trading Derivatives - Old Way and Clearinghouses

The New York Times has a good article about how the big banks are setting the rules for establishing the clearinghouses that trade derivatives. The article is actually a good example of the potential social costs from markets in which some parties have lots of market power (oligopoly and monopoly) and how they can capture profits by controlling entry to the market and making prices non-transparent.

The article also has a good supporting graphic that shows how the old system for derivatives worked compared to how the new market should work. A good teaching tool. Here it is:

The New Tax Plan and Multiplier Effect

Mark Zandi on Moody's/Dismal Scientist makes his forecast as to how the Obama/Republican Tax Deal will affect the economy - overall positive, but at a cost. In his forecast he has two interesting charts. The first is the multiplier effects of different parts of the plan. This chart could be an interesting teaching tool to show how different types of programs have different multipliers:






































The second chart is the long-term forecast of the economy over the next several years and how the tax cut will effect both short and long term economic plans:

New Unemployment Numbers - Bad

The unemployment numbers for November are out - and things look worse. The new unemployment rate is at 9.8%. This seems to be darkening the thoughts that the recovery was starting to gain steam. The bleakness of the jobs picture is shown in this graph from the New York Times:

Ireland For Sale