Data of the Decade

Here's a great blog post I found for those of us who love data. I think candidate number four is the one that we all need to consider when projecting how our economy and therefore our city budget will be doing over the next decade. Given the fact we now have a negative savings rate, it may take a while for consumer spending to recover to 2006 levels. In any case, here's the post:

Economic Statistic of the Decade Award:Finalists

Posted in Statistics by Mike Mandel on December 31, 2009

Economic statistics don’t get enough recognition for all of their hard work. So, I’ve decided to offer an “Economic Statistic of the Decade” Award. The three criteria are simple. First, we want to reward the economic statistic that best reflects the decade (both the good and the bad).

Second, we want to recognize the economic statistic that turned in a surprising performance–that is, back in 2000, if someone had shown you a graph of the statistic over the next ten years, you would have said “no way”. Third, we want to reward economic statistics that are reliable and accurate representations of the actual economy.

In the 1990s, for example, the Economic Statistic of the Decade Award would have gone to U.S. productivity growth. The runner-ups would have been Chinese economic growth, followed by global tech spending.

What about this decade? Here are the four finalists (chosen by me):
1) Housing prices
2) Global trade
3) Chinese growth
4) U.S. household borrowing

Here’s a bit about each of the finalists:

1) The boom and bust in housing prices clearly epitomizes the decade. What’s more, in 2000 nobody in their right mind would have predicted that the boom lasted as long as it did. Downside: The gyrations in the housing market may be a symptom of deeper problems, much like a fever is a symptom rather than a disease in its own right .

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. In 1999, global exports were about 22.7% of global GDP, as measured by the International Monetary Fund. By 2008, that number was 32. 3% before plummeting in 2009. Downside: There may be systematic double-counting, as companies break up production into smaller and smaller pieces.

3) Chinese economic growth would have been one of the runner-ups for the Economic Statistics of the Decade for the 1990s. Chinese economy growth averaged an astounding 10% peryear in that decade, and looks like it’s going to get to the same level again in this decade. Downside: No one is really sure whether to trust the Chinese economic statistics or not.

4) Finally, we come to U.S. household borrowing, which probably is the clearest reflection of the financial crisis. In this decade the U.S. household sector amped up its borrowing from $500 billion in 1999 to $1.2 trillion in 2006, before dramatically cutting debt in 2009. Downside: This number from the Federal Reserve includes domestic hedge funds and nonprofit organizations, making it a bit tough to interpret.

Click here for the graph, it is pretty stunning.