How would you solve the debt crisis?

With all of the controversy regarding the United States' debt, several sites have released games that allow people to try their own hands in debt balancing.  Specifically, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget released the interactive tool seen in the graphic.  Choose when to phase out troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, whether or not to pursue a moon colony, and how to treat retirees.  The site displays savings relative to current policy dependent upon the policies you choose.

The Wall Street Journal released a similar activity, allowing you to choose between "fiscal cliff" scenarios, extending current legislation, or adopting new measures of your own. The decisions one makes influence whether or not the United States debt would make it to 60% of GDP in 2020, as some policymakers and experts have suggested. 

Hospital Errors Kill 98,000 Americans a Year

Marty Makary, writing for the Wall Street Journal, highlighted the disturbing trend of errors in the medical field and the deadly consequences these errors lead to.  Based on data from the Institute of Medicine, hospital errors kill 98,000 patients a year, and 1 in 4 hospitalized patients are harmed in some fashion by hospital errors.  If hospital errors were a disease, they would be the sixth leading cause of death in America – ahead of Alzheimers.  Surgeons have even been known to operate on the wrong body part as frequently as 40 times per week. The issue of hospital errors is often overlooked due to the fact that hospital performance statistics are difficult to attain, and for the simple fact that the public is more than willing to trust a medical institution. 

Why the dangerously high number of errors?  Makary's analysis points to a lack of teamwork.  Many employees across America’s hospitals report poor levels of teamwork, an aspect of hospital dynamics that makes it difficult to recognize and prevent mistakes.  Makary suggests installing cameras, providing patients with online access to medical histories and charts, and simply opening a dialogue on the deadly consequences of medical errors as solutions to the problem.

"Sand Rush" in Midwest Expected to Bring Jobs

A recent Wall Street Journal article discusses what it refers to as a "sand rush" in the Midwest due to an increase in demand for sand by U.S. oil and natural gas-producers.  The sedimentary material is a necessary component in the process of "fracking," in which sand is "injected deep underground to prop open fractures in shale formations and allow oil and gas to flow out."  The chart from the article shows the increase in demand for "fracking-sand" since 2008.  As the chart shows, demand has increased from roughly 6 million tons in 2008 to nearly 30 million tons in 2011.  According to the article, this increased demand is expected to bring more jobs to the Midwest, but there resistance from residents due to environmental concerns may play a role in the development of this industry. 

"Disappointing" April Jobs Report

A recent Wall Street Journal article discusses what it refers to as a "disappointing jobs report" for April.  While the unemployment rate decreased to 8.1%, this drop can largely be attributed to the 342,000 people who left the labor force over the same time period.  The interactive graphic from the article, which includes three graphs, highlights several unemployment trends since the recession began in 2008.  In one graph, the percentage change in payroll employment from 2008 to 2012 is compared to four other periods of recession.  As the graph shows, all jobs had been recovered by year five of the previous recessions but have still not been recovered since the recession beginning in 2008.  Another graph shows the percentage change in payroll employment since 2008.  As this graph indicates, construction has made little improvement at -25.8% while the education and health sector have improved by 9.1% since 2008.  Lastly, the third graph shows the percent change in payroll employment since 2008 by gender.  According to the graph, men were hit worse initially by the recession but have since made a more rapid recovery.  Currently, however, women are only 2.6% below pre-recession employment while men remain 4.6% below.

Unemployment Rises While Output Falls in Greece

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Alkman Granitsas discusses Greece’s unemployment rate for November 2011, which was released Thursday.  The November unemployment rate was 20.9%, which is up from 18.2% in October 2011.  The graph from the article shows the steady climb in Greek unemployment since 2010, when unemployment was below 15%.  As the graph also shows, this rise in unemployment has coincided with a fall in industrial output of 7.8% from November to December.  Granitsas points to last year’s austerity measures as a likely contributor to the economic slowdown that has resulted in a fifth year of recession for Greece.

Cultural Inequality in the U.S.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Charles Murray discusses the emergence of what he refers to as “cultural inequality” in the U.S. since the 1960s. According to Murray, this cultural inequality is a result of the formation of a “new upper class” and “new lower class” that no longer share an “American way of life.” Among the qualities that Murray uses to define this so-called American way of life are marriage, male employment, religion and marital births. The interactive graphic from the article shows statistics relating to all of these items for people aged 30-49 that are defined as upper middle class (“with at least a college education working in managerial jobs or high-status professions”) and working class (“with no more than a high school education in blue-collar, low-skill or service jobs”) from the 1960s/1970s and the 2000s. The data seem to support Murray's concept of a new cultural inequality in the US, as more members of the working class appear to have fallen away from the “American way of life” than members of the upper middle class over the last 4 or 5 decades. For example, while the marital rate of the upper middle class have fallen from 94% to 83% since 1960, the marital rate of the working class plummeted from 84% to 48% over the same time period. A similar trend can be seen in the rest of the graphic, with the working class experiencing a larger percentage increase in males with jobs working fewer than 40 hours per week and a larger percentage increase in those calling themselves non-religious.

Fed Apparently Blindsided By Financial Crisis

A recent Wall Street Journal article discusses documents released Thursday that contain transcripts from closed-door Fed meetings during 2006.  These transcripts include statements made by Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and other Fed officials, including Timothy Geithner (President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York at the time and now U.S. Treasury Secretary), that suggest that they were more or less blindsided by the magnitude and speed at which housing prices would decline and the resulting financial crisis.  The following image from the article shows housing sales and the share of mortgages on which payments are past due by 90 days or more from 2001 to 2011.  Each graph indicates the two dates (labeled 1 and 2) during which the meetings that were included in the recently released documents occurred in 2006, in addition to comments made at those meetings by Bernanke and Geithner.  As the first graph shows, U.S. sales of existing homes was slightly down at roughly $6.3 million from its peak in 2005 of over $7 million at both meetings. They had not yet started on the rapid decline that began almost immediately after the second meeting and ultimately resulted in sales lower than $4 million by 2009.  Similarly, the second graph shows that the share of mortgage payments overdue by more than 90 days were up slightly during both meetings but had not yet began on the rapid climb from roughly 1% in 2007 to 5% in 2010.  Furthermore, the comments of the Fed, Geithner, and Bernanke included alongside the graphs suggest a major lack of foresight on all of their parts (most notably Bernanke’s prediction that a “soft landing” was the “likely scenario”).  As the article points out, the release of these documents may have been particularly ill-timed for the Fed with criticism mounting against it, as illustrated by Ron Paul’s “end the Fed!” chant after the New Hampshire primary.  However, at least one former Fed governor whose statements were included in the transcripts, Susan Bies, came out unscathed with her warnings of the risks of mortgage-backed securities and household debt during one of the 2006 meetings.

Airline Customer Service Rankings

The Wall Street Journal's Middle Seat article presents its rankings of major airlines based upon different aspects of customer service, including on-time arrivals, flight delays, baggage handling and canceled flights.  The chart from the article shows the rankings across the various categories of seven major airlines, among which American placed last overall and Alaska, the smallest of the seven, placed first.  Also noteworthy was Delta's second place ranking, which is up from ninth in 2010 among major airlines.  American Airlines' poor ranking comes as no surprise, as the airline filed for bankruptcy in November.  According to the article, the airline blames its aging fleet, as frequent mechanical breakdowns have caused increased cancellations.  It also blames extraordinary weather, including a hailstorm in Dallas that damaged 50 jets.  The article also points out the detrimental effect that United and Continental's 2010 merger has had on customer service.