Days before Christmas day and still reading the news when graphs and economics are what I encountered. Several articles tackled about graphs which actually started when BBC asked several economists to name their graph of the year. Some of the world’s top economists shared their insights in the financial developments particularly in the Eurozone by choosing a graph which they felt explained the currents events and what they can expect in the near future.

American newspapers and blogs did not want to be left without their own version and decided to ask their favorite economists, economic policymakers and investors to name their favorite graph of the year or the graph clearly influenced their thinking in 2011 with the reasons why it did. I have to say that Derek Thompson hit it on the head when he said “In a discipline where facts are murky and certainty is elusive, graphs offer a bright light of information and a small confidence that the world can be summed up between two axes.”

The economy and the changes with and around it is really a complex thing. Charts and graphs certainly make it easier for any layman and any person in industrial workwear interested enough to understand what is happening. Here are some of my favorites among the chosen graphs with the explanation from the expert who chose it as graph of the year for 2011. 

Peter Diamond, MIT

"This chart shows that a great deal of hiring is happening, as it does each month, that hiring per job opening is higher than it was when there was less unemployment, and that the ratio of quits to discharges, while still low, is recovering (a sign of better job opportunities). I infer that the low level of job openings is our key problem, reflecting inadequate aggregate demand and the need for significant fiscal stimulus."

Larry Summers, Harvard

"The near quadrupling in the share of men not working and the seemingly inexorable trend changes every aspect of society. Cyclical and structural changes are combining in a perfect storm."

Mark Zandi, Moody's

"Households are rapidly deleveraging and getting their proverbial house in order. The number of delinquent household loans has plunged from a peak of close to 35 million in early 2009 to less than 25 million in November."

Michael Greenstone, MIT, the Hamilton Project

"This chart shows how the jobs gap has evolved since December 2007 and shows three different scenarios for different rates of job growth. If the economy adds about 208,000 jobs per month, which was the average monthly rate for the best year of job creation in the 2000s, then it will take until February 2024 — over 12 years — to close the jobs gap."

Robert Frank, New York University

"My entry is the attached graph of what I call the Toil Index. It's an index I constructed to portray the most dramatic element of the middle-class squeeze -- the effort required to rent a house served by a school of average quality. "

Mike Konczal, Roosevelt Institute

"This graphic was originally part of a presentation two IMF economists gave in Cairo days before the Arab Spring happened. In the graph they showed 2008-era youth unemployment in the MENA region and warned about the long-term effects, both economic and political, of mass youth unemployment. I've updated it to include US youth unemployment in the Great Recession."

Source: Wonkblog