Visualization tools are great. I love anything that shows data in an interesting way; there’s only so many spreadsheets of data one can look at before you start going cross-eyed (heres to you, Bureau of Labor Statistics). And a hot political topic right now is the stimulus package – or rather, stimulus packages – and CNN.com has a great tool for visualizing the stimulus packages, or what they refer to as The Big Bang.
Their tool splits the total amount of money dispersed by the federal government into three major categories: Stimulus 1, Stimulus 2, and Stealth Stimulus, which they define as the following:
Stimulus 1:
Stimulus 1 is the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed into law in February 2009. It contains a combination of grants, loans, direct spending and tax cuts aimed at creating jobs and alleviating the economic stresses caused by the recession.
Stimulus 2:
Stimulus 2 is a group of extensions of programs enacted by stimulus 1 that were about to expire. It also includes other economic stimulus that was not in the ARRA bill.
Stealth Stimulus:
Since the credit crisis erupted in 2008, the government launched several dozen programs aimed at rescuing the financial sector, the housing market and the overall economy. They included only programs that were launched by the Federal Reserve, Treasury Department or Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. since 2008.
Anyway, regardless of your political feelings towards the stimulus and the political and economic ramifications of that legislation, it’s an interesting graphic and it’s a great way to visualize how the money is being spent.
Michael
Twitter: @michael_dink
what galls me about that is the huge amount of money that went to propping up big business, and the relatively paltry amounts that went to infrastructure development. Its sad really.