Via CNN. I love the "stealth stimulus" term which is probably code for bank bonuses.   

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This week’s data visualization post is actually a very well made video about the Credit Crisis by Jonathan Jarvis. I learned a few things from this video myself and its a fantastic way to see how we got into this mess, and who was ultimately responsible for setting this shit ball rolling (GREENSPAN).

My friend at Paper Economy is testing out his new data visualization engine and he pulled together a scary chart of Year over Year house prices in Phoenix, Arizona. Can you believe it? We are below 2000 prices?

This is truly a frightening chart and I suspect that real estate prices could go even lower in Arizona, and the rest of the country for that matter, if people continue to get laid off.  This would confirm my observation from earlier this year about real estate and equity prices having further to fall.

I think I’m going to start a new weekly data visualization feature on Neural Market Trends, starting with the OECD.  I love web sites that take complex, and sometimes boring data, and displays them in a visually pleasing way. This week’s data visualization feature is the OECD Factbook eXplorer which is maintained by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The OECD is an organization that compiles all kinds of data for many countries and then allows you to display that onto a flash based map. You can easily find data about fertility, employment, and inflation rates for different countries, all with the click of a mouse, and display them on a colorized map. You can zoom in and out, drag the map around, and add more information from pull down menus.

The eXplorer also has a scatter plot, a timeline, a data dashboard, and you have the option to see your data visually and in table form simultaneously.  What’s even better is that you can also create data queries and download them into Excel spreadsheets or CSV.

Below are three screenshots of different displayed data visulaizations I created in seconds flat:

Fertility Rates per Country

Electricity Generation per Country

Labour Rates for Europe

As you can see, the OECD website is rich on data visualization and is very useful for researchers, bloggers, and students!  Take some time and poke around in there, you’ll be amazed at what you find!