{"id":136667,"date":"2010-01-04T15:12:45","date_gmt":"2010-01-04T20:12:45","guid":{"rendered":"tag:business.theatlantic.com,2010:\/\/3.32914"},"modified":"2010-01-04T15:27:34","modified_gmt":"2010-01-04T20:27:34","slug":"the-most-important-economic-statistic-of-the-decade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/136667","title":{"rendered":"The Most Important Economic Statistic of the Decade"},"content":{"rendered":"

What 10-year graph best sums up the aughts: Housing prices, global trade, China’s growth or US household borrowing? Economist Michael Mandel presents his four most important economic graphs of the decade<\/a>. I offer one more.<\/p>\n

1) The boom and bust in housing prices<\/strong> clearly
\nepitomizes the decade. What’s more, in 2000 nobody in their right mind
\nwould have predicted that the boom lasted as long as it did. Downside:
\nThe gyrations in the housing market may be a symptom of deeper
\nproblems, much like a fever is a symptom rather than a disease in its
\nown right (The chart below is drawn from the Case-Shiller price
\nindexes) <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

2) Globalization has been one of the main themes of this decade-and nothing illustrates globalization more than the rise in exports as a share of global GDP.<\/strong>
\nIn 1999, global exports were about 22.7% of global GDP, as measured by
\nthe International Monetary Fund. By 2008, that number was 32. 3% before
\nplummeting in 2009. Downside: There may be systematic double-counting,
\nas companies break up production into smaller and smaller pieces. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

3) Chinese economic growth<\/strong> would have been one of
\nthe runner-ups for the Economic Statistics of the Decade for the 1990s.
\nChinese economy growth averaged an astounding 10% peryear in that
\ndecade, and looks like it’s going to get to the same level again in
\nthis decade. Downside: No one is really sure whether to trust the
\nChinese economic statistics or not.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

4) Finally, we come to U.S. household borrowing, <\/strong>which
\nprobably is the clearest reflection of the financial crisis. In this
\ndecade the U.S. household sector amped up its borrowing from $500
\nbillion in 1999 to $1.2 trillion in 2006, before dramatically cutting
\ndebt in 2009. Downside: This number from the Federal Reserve includes
\ndomestic hedge funds and nonprofit organizations, making it a bit tough
\nto interpret. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

As for me, I wish he had included this graph below (also via Mandel) which nicely sums up America’s private sector problem. Our 10-year net growth in jobs is quite positive in health, education and government, but negative in everything else.<\/p>\n

\"healthedgov.png\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n



\n

\n Email this Article<\/a>
\n Add to digg<\/a>
\n Add to Reddit<\/a>
\n Add to Twitter<\/a>
\n Add to del.icio.us<\/a>
\n Add to StumbleUpon<\/a>
\n Add to Facebook<\/a>
\n

\n\"\"<\/a>
\n\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What 10-year graph best sums up the aughts: Housing prices, global trade, China’s growth or US household borrowing? Economist Michael Mandel presents his four most important economic graphs of the decade. I offer one more. 1) The boom and bust in housing prices clearly epitomizes the decade. What’s more, in 2000 nobody in their right […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136667\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}