Two Charts that Tell a Powerful Economic Story

Just as there is more than one way to skin a cat (apologies to the animal lovers out there), there are myriad ways to illustrate the extent of the economic and financial mess we are in.

As a fan of simple graphs that tell a powerful story, I couldn't resist the urge to highlight two charts featured in a recent post by the Sudden Debt blog, entitled "A More 'Personal' Look At Debt":

It is common enough to look at debt as a percentage of GDP, DPI, etc. but that's so... impersonal. So here are a couple of (very scary) charts that look at things from a dollars per person perspective (click on charts to enlarge).

Debt per person and GDP per person:

Debt per person and Disposable Personal Income per person:

Comments

[The Economi...:]

Having just sold our house and now renting, we are just a blip on that chart.

Nov 02 08:27 AM

[401KMAN:]

Disposable income? What is that? Many are living paycheck to paycheck and hoping their 11 year-old car does not burn out.

I read one article which put it pretty good- there are the Haves, the Have Nots, and the Used-to-Haves.

Nov 02 07:08 PM