Visualizing Economics » Financial markets

Visual Storytelling: Credit Crisis

Catherine — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:33:11 +0000

An interactive graphic from the Wall Street Journal, which takes the data for 6 key financial indicators and stacks them while rollover text annotates the main events of the crisis. Created by Andrew Garcia Phillips, Stephen Grocer and Kate Milani.

I think the visual display of the data is very effective however the rollover text annotations are not effective since you can’t use them to follow the underlining story in the data visualization.

While I appreciate Google Finance integrating the news story with the graphic which allows you to use the data visualization find related news stories you lose the different data series and there still is no coherent story for the graphic.

Still, I have found the most effective storytelling using data visualizations uses a person to narrate the story.

US stockmarket returns since 1825 [Economist]

Catherine — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:22:00 +0000

From the Economist

The total return of the S&P 500 index fell by nearly 40% last year, the second-worst performance by America’s stockmarket since 1825…

What is a Hedge Fund?

Catherine — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:00:00 +0000

In case you were wondering about what all those hedge fund managers were doing while earning those incredibly large incomes check this out:

A look inside hedge funds from Marketplace on Vimeo.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized

Catherine — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:00:00 +0000

The Crisis of Credit Visualized is a video from Interaction & Media Designer Jonathan Jarvis found via Cool Infographics.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Five indicators for tracking the Credit Crisis (NYTimes)

Catherine — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 01:00:00 +0000

From New York Times Economix blog. Five indicators tracking the change in the supply/demand for Credit: High-Yield Bonds, 30-day Commercial Paper, 3-month LIBOR, 3-month t-bills, and TED Spread

{Click on the image to take a closer look}

[tags]United States, Credit Crisis[/tags]

Stock Market & World GDP Statistical Data Sculptures

Catherine — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 02:26:00 +0000

The piece consists of two layers: the lower half is a mapping of the
world’s GDP and the top half is a mapping of the derivatives volume,
alloted to the coordinates of the countries on a map.

Sculpture found via infomation aesthetics

Compare 12 Bear Markets (S&P 500) Aug 1929 – Oct 2008

Catherine — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:34:23 +0000

Screenshot from a New York Times Interactive Graphic How This Bear Market Compares by Amanda Cox, XaquÃn G.V. and David Leonhardt that shows the percentage drop in the S&P 500 during the last 12 bear markets. The current market drop is highlighted in red, while the drop after 1929 is highlighted in orange.

{Click on the image to take a closer look}

[tags]United States, S&P 500, Bear Markets[/tags]

Money Supply Ratio: Jan 1958 – Sep 2008

Catherine — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 01:20:52 +0000

A graph suggested by a reader, Chuck Beach, pointing out the historical high of the ratio of two measurements of the Money Supply M2/M1

M1 = is the narrowest measurement of the amount of money in circulation and money held in current (checking) accounts.

M2 = M1 plus money held in savings account or deposit which are not immediately available.

Data from the Federal Reserve

Credit Swaps Insurance Market: 2000-2007

Catherine — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 01:00:00 +0000

From a NY Times article on Credit Swaps from February 2008. It is worth reading for its primer on credit swaps and how it predicts the events of the current credit crisis.

[tags]Credit Swaps[/tags]

Difference between US 3-Month T-bills vs Fed Funds: 1956-2008

Catherine — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 02:26:15 +0000

I plotted the historical spread between Effective Fed Funds rate and US 3-Month T-bills back to 1956 using the weekly average. This a companion graph to Anatomy of a Financial Crisis: September 2008

{Click on the image to take a closer look}

Data from Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[tags]United States, Interest Rate, Fed Funds[/tags]