Wednesday, January 01, 2014

3 Interesting Charts/Surveys

Chart #1

How can any society or any government succeed when most of its institutions are held in such low regard by its citizens? In this revealing Gallup poll, even a seemingly developed and advanced nation like USA have issues that they have to grapple with. The now oft-used "trust deficit" is sorely lacking in Malaysia. I wonder how a similar survey in Malaysia would yield.

"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt!" (55BC)
- Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43BC)


americans confidence

Chart #2

This chart was initiated by a hunters' association, which they try to bring clarity to opposition groups on hunting. The causes for birds' fatalities are mind boggling.
birds
What's interesting is the source of the graphic-- the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a weapons industry association-- and the reason that the NSSF put it together:  to fend off criticism of lead ammunition, which is fatally ingested by a lot of raptors and waterbirds and is threatening to drive the California Condor back into extinction in the wild. Alternatives to lead exist, but, owing to low production of them, they're currently somewhat more expensive.
What's striking about the pie chart is how big a slice of it consists of predation by free-roaming cats. A large new peer-reviewed study published in 2013 estimates the number of North American birds killed by cats at well over one billion per year.  Bells on collars don't help. Neutering feral cats doesn't work. Keeping cats indoors helps.
Chart #3

As global markets cheer share prices, lets look at the sobering situation in Europe. Much of it is still in pain. However, if you look on the flip side, a substantive improvement in employment going forward may reverse the figures on the chart, which is to say when things turn, they could present a lot of upside still to the economy.
cowen ecb graph
Tyler Cowen's graph comes by way of the blog Sober Look. It measures year-over-year loan growth to households adjusted for sales and securitization. Or, to put it more simply, it shows credit remains a huge problem in the Eurozone. "Here is one reason why the eurozone is not out of the woods" Cowen said over e-mail.. 

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