The New York Times published the results of 10 months of research looking at state, local and county taxpayer money that goes to businesses.
Interesting way to display day.
Government Subsidies to Businesses
“The Times identified 48 companies that have received more than $100 million in state grants since 2007. Some 5,000 other companies have received more than $1 million in recent years.”
Read the article here: Companies Seek Tax Deal
Read the methodology: Continue reading
CBO released a report today about Unemployment Insurance. “The unemployment insurance (UI) system is generic cialis online a partnership between the federal government and state governments that cialisonline-storeedtop provides a temporary weekly benefit to qualified workers who lose their job and are seeking work. overnight viagra The amount of that benefit is based in part on a worker’s past earnings. CBO estimates that UI benefits totaled $94 billion in fiscal year 2012 (when viagra en video the unemployment rate was 8.3 legal canadian pharmacy online percent, on average), a substantial increase over cialis online the $33 billion paid out in fiscal year 2007 (when the unemployment rate was 4.5 percent, on average).” 
See Report Here
CBO made a presentation about using analytical models and disseminating information. It provides a description about how a few of their key models are created and some great examples of charts they created to present that information. Find it here:
Using Analytical Models: A CBO Presentation
Video
Developed by the Center for American Progress
NPR did this cool graphic looking at the voting map and showing how it looks in terms of the amount of money spent in each state for 2012 election.
Check it out: Map Morphed by Money
Came across this story about various “Polls.” Posted in NY Times, October 28, 2012: Unconventional Wisdom
With the presidential election next week– and the media’s obsession with polling, even to the point of wondering if Hurricane Sandy will make it harder to poll (as if that’s an issue the millions of people affected by the storm are concerned about in this moment)– there has been a lot of discussion about the polling results as well as the methodology. Why do polls differ? Is there a bias? Are polls used to influence voting? What about cell phones? Why do pollsters weight the data and can that be used to alter the results intentionally? Can polls be trusted?
Scott Keeter, Director of Survey Research at PEW’s Research Center was on C-SPAN’s National Journal and explained how polling is done. Great information.
C-Span Video Interview with Scott Keeter
October 30, 2012
Another pollster– Nate Silver–is worth checking out.FiveThirtyEight Blog
Silver has been the center of the political infighting about polling results. See this article from US News and World Report: …the war on Nate Silver
Diane Rehms also had a show on polls on NPR on October
Transcript can be found at: Understanding Political Polls
Published on Wednesday, October 31, 2012 by Commons Dreams
A Stormy Reminder of Why We Need Government
A job well done, from the local 911 switchboard to the White House
by David Morris
If this election is a referendum on the benefit of government then superstorm Sandy should be Exhibit A for the affirmative. The government weather service, using data from government weather satellites delivered a remarkably accurate and sobering long range forecast that both catalyzed action and gave communities sufficient time to prepare. Those visually stunning maps you saw on the web or t.v. were largely based on public data made publicly available from local, state and federal agencies.
As the storm neared, governors and mayors ordered the evacuation of low lying areas. Police and firefighters ensured these orders were carried out and helped those needing assistance. As the storm hit, mayors imposed curfews.
Government 911 and 311 telephone operators quickly and effectively responded to hundreds of thousands of individual calls for assistance and information. Indeed, the volume of those calls may lead us to propose a different answer to the question asked by those famous lines from the movie Ghostbusters. “If there’s something weird and it don’t look good who ya gonna call?” Government. Continue reading
From NPR-Diane Rehm show: Understanding Political Polls Polls have become the news. As in past elections, polling data, fund raising, and ad critiques have, I am sure, eclipsed any substantive debate/discussion about the many serious issues that faces our nation. We just like the horse-race. That said, conducting polls is much harder today because it is challenging to get a representative sample. Polls that exclude cellphones also exclude very particular groups of people who might have be more likely to vote for one candidate rather than another. As a result, the polls will be a poor representation. It is also true that national samples will be a poor predictor of results of the electoral college. This is worth listening to. And no doubt, there will be lots of analysis about which polling company did the best in predicting the 2012 presidential results. It will be curious if 7/11 predicts this one (see earlier post), but then, they have a 50-50 chance of being right!
The Economist has a very cool interactive chart that looks at world debt as a percentage of GDP. Yes, it is possible to have more debt than the Gross Domestic Product.
Compare the countries:
World Debt: The Economist
September 2012.