History of Financial Crisis, 2007 - 2010

A recent Pew Research Center report in FacTank, on the history of the financial crisis from 2007 to 2010, analyst, Drew DeSilver says that the chart above is packed with the history of the financial crisis and is taken from a Department of the Treasury power point presentation that summarizes the financial crisis. The full report is also available.  The data are taken from Standard and Poor's (S&P) 500 Index which is tracked and reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Bureau of of Economic Analysis and the Consumer Sentiment Index which is taken from the Survey of Consumers, published monthly by the University of Michigan and Thomson Reuters. 

The chart shows the time of the recession, December 2007 through June, 2009 in grey with the activity of the Standard and Poor's (S&P) 500 Index is shown as a line in blue with the scale on the left side of the chart and the Consumer Sentiment Index is shown as a line in orange with the scale on the right side of the chart.  Important events are placed on the blue line as black dots on their dates, which are displayed at the bottom of the chart. 

themostsearched.org has several resources to help faculty engage students in the economics of today's world. They are "You Fix the Budget" from the New York Times and "Make Your Own Deficit-Reduction Plan" from The Wall Street Journal. Both are freely available. 


Read more:
http://www.pewresearch.org/
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/
http://www.pewresearch.org/author/ddesilver/http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/09/13/chart-of-the-week-a-stroll-down-financial-crisis-memory-lane/#comments
http://www.people-press.org/2013/09/12/five-years-after-market-crash-u-s-economy-seen-as-no-more-secure/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/11/five-years-after-the-crisis-these-13-charts-show-whats-fixed-and-what-isnt/?wpisrc=nl_wnkpm
http://www.treasury.gov/connect/blog/Documents/FinancialCrisis5Yr_vFINAL.pdf
http://fcic.law.stanford.edu/report
http://fcic-static.law.stanford.edu/cdn_media/fcic-reports/fcic_final_report_full.pdf
http://www.nber.org/cycles/cyclesmain.html

themostsearched.org resources:
http://themostsearched.org/resource/3355
http://themostsearched.org/resource/3903

America's Trade Deficit Decreases

The Bureau of Economic Analysis released its monthly report on U.S. International Trade in Goods and Serviceson July 11^th.  As of May, America is running a $48.7 billion trade deficit.  The trade deficit was revised downward from its previous estimate of $50.1 billion in April.  Exports of goods and services rose $0.4 billion during May – due mostly to an increase in the exports of services – and imports decreased by $1.6 billion.  While the imports of goods decreased, imports of services actually increased.  America’s goods deficit with China contributes greatly to the overall trade deficit, and in the month of May, the goods deficit with the nation of over 1.3 billion increased $1.4 billion to $26.0 billion total.

Playing Politics with Data

In the increasingly polarized political environment in the United States, it is hard to imagine policy-making becoming even more ideological and subjective.  This is the main concern of two associate professors from Columbia University Emi Nakamura and Jon Steinsson and assistant professor Nicolas Vincent from HEC Montreal in a recent Bloomberg View op-ed.


Sparked by recent legislation passed in the U.S. House of Representatives in early May, the trio outlines a dangerous trend of conservative governments all over the world (Argentina, Greece, and Canada) playing politics with data collection that serves as objective voice in policy-making.  Most notably, Greece's misreporting of budget deficit statistics that resulted in an criminal investigation as the country faced total economic collapse.


According to the authors, "It’s hard to overstate how dangerous the destruction of high-quality, objective statistical information would be."  The three main statistical agencies in the United States - the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Bureau of Labor Statistics - "account for less than 0.05 percent of President Barack Obama’s $3.7 trillion proposed budget." 


This issue is being played out in the media as the budget deficit and economy is the main concern on the minds of voters heading into the upcoming national elections.  Increasing awareness and educating the public about the importance of collecting reliable demographic data could swayvoters as they head to the polls this November.