World's Most Expensive Cities

With Tokyo topping the list once again, the Economist Intelligence Unit released this chart analyzing the cost-of living index.  Beating out Zurich which achieved the number one spot last year due to its currency strength, Tokyo occupies the same place this year it has had fourteen times in the last twenty years.

New York forms the basis for comparison and is anchored at one hundred for reference, though up nineteen places from last year, reaching spot 27.  The scale is determine on the weighted average of 160 goods and services in each city.

In the past decade, cities that have seen strongest growth are Caracas and São Paulo (however, Caracas is seen to decrease to the level of Mumbai and Karachi when corrected for high inflation).  The past ten years have spelled out the most decline for Detroit and Panama City.

America at a Glance

The New York Times has extracted data from the Census Bureau's 2005-2009 American Community Survey in order to compose a map displaying the racial, socioeconomic, and educational composition of the U.S.  In terms of income distribution, there is a high density of Americans earning over $200,000 in the Northeast.  For instance, more than 15% of the population in Hunterdon, New Jersey, Fairfield, Connecticut, and Westchester, New York earn over $200,000.  Another map illustrating the percentage of foreign born residents shows a high concentration throughout much of California, southern Arizona, south and southwest Texas, and southern Florida.  Additionally,  New York City and the region surrounding it possesses a high percentage of foreign born residents. 

Homicides Up 38% In Chicago

Monica Davey of The New York Times examined homicides in some of America’s largest cities.  Chicago’s Mayor, Rahm Emanuel, ranked safer streets among his top three priorities when he first took office; however, homicides are up 38% from a year ago.  Killings have fallen in other cities like New York and Los Angeles, something Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg attributes in part to the city’s controversial stop-and-frisk program.  Philadelphia joins Chicago as a major city in which homicides have increased.  As of June 20, 173 homicides were reported in the City of Brotherly Love, up from 143 by the same time last year.  It is important to note that Chicago has experienced a drastic drop in killings since the early 1990s when more than 900 were killed annually.

Corruption Costs Illinois $500 Million a Year

The Economist recently highlighted a report published by the University of Illinois at Chicago in which corruption amongst American states is more closely examined.  The Economist’s daily chart displays the number of public corruption convictions from 1976 to 2010.  This analysis of public corruption comes just days after Rod Blagojevich began his 14-year prison sentence on March 15^th. The former governor of Illinois was impeached and removed from office for attempting to sell Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat (amongst other charges) in early 2009.  The corruption report displays convictions per 10,000 population.  Louisiana leads all states with a rate of 2 appointees and government employees convicted per 10,000 of the state’s total population, followed by Illinois at 1.4, New York at 1.3, and Pennsylvania at just over 1.2 convictions per 10,000.  New York had the most convictions, at 2,522, followed closely by California with 2,345.  The District of Columbia has convicted public officials due to corruption at a rate of 16.7 per 10,000 of the population since 1976, but this figure is exaggerated due to the fact that the Jusitice Department and other federal agencies often try corruption cases regardless of where the crimes were committed.  The report also estimates that corruption costs Illinois $500 million a year, which is just over 2% of the state’s FY2013 budget, and more than the $425 million in spending cuts enacted by Governor Pat Quinn for the coming year.