All Other Assets

by | posted in: External Charts, The Economics Devision | 0

From Gresham’s Law:

Here we present a history of the Fed in charts. As you’ll surely glean from the below — the Fed has degenerated from a by and large passive institution (dealing only in high-quality self-liquidating commercial paper and gold) to an active pursuant of junk, an enabler of wars, a ‘benevolent’ combatant of the depressions of its own creation, a central planner of employment & prices and of course a forgiving friend to inconvenient market follies.

If you understood any of that, you might enjoy the accompanying decade-by-decade survey of the Fed’s assets.  Everyone else can join us in hoping that someone understood it.

The Dow Jones Before, During and After the Glass-Steagall Act

by | posted in: ACM Charts, Features, The Economics Devision | 0

After yesterday’s post about breaking up the banks and The Newsroom’s mention of U.S. economic performance under Glass-Steagall, Ape Con Myth decided to dust off  The Tao Jones data set and take another look at the full history of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, from 1896 through last Friday.

This time we’ll look at 31,490 trading days using Glass-Steagall’s tenure as the yardstick…

(click the image to enlarge)

For more exploration of the Dow, check out The Tao Jones.

You Can Pick Your Friends and You Can Pick Your Nose, But More Than Likely You’ll Just Vote Democrat or Republican

by | posted in: External Infographic, The Political Devision | 0

Still months away, the 2012 U.S. presidential election is already shaping up to be a real chore/bore.  It’s as if we used up every bit of inspiration in 2008 and are now left to vote along party lines that are neither fun like a party nor straightforward like a line.

With the economy, it’s difficult to imagine either party promoting themselves, but given the likelihood that they will, here’s Businessweek’s recap of Obama’s efforts to straighten the ship…

(click for full size version)

Now we just need a chart on how this relates to reality.

One of These Things is Not Like the Others

by | posted in: External Charts, Features, The Political Devision, Video | 0

Before we get to the chart, let’s refresh ourselves on the drill…

Okay, now look at the chart and pick out what’s different…

Did you pick the Bush-Era Tax Cuts?  Then you’re absolutely right!

Unlike wars, downturns, bailouts and recoveries, we can project the direct financial effect of tax cuts before the fact.  Everything else on the subject is speculation.  At this point, that there is still a debate about it at all points to much deeper problems.

[Chart via GOOD]