Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Fear - Charts of the Day

Fear is felt by those out of power.  The questions are: Is the fear logical?  Is it justified?

When Republicans are in power, the left fears forced Christianity, forced births of all the unborn, rising sea levels and the rich getting richer.  After 8 years of Reagan, and 8 years of George W. Bush, you'd think these fears would be realized if they were warranted.  Does it take more than an 8-year term of a Republican to make these things happen?  If so, why all the fear associated with Santorum?

In other words, the fear that the left feels is not justified, nor logical.

When Democrats are in power, the right fears redistribution of wealth, mis-managed finances, destructive domestic policies and unsustainable public-sector growth, the dilution of religious and traditional family values.  Here are two charts from today that suggest the right may be justified in its fear of liberal progressive communist governance:

From financial blog Zero Hedge:


This chart shows the demand for US minted gold coins since 1987.  Click Here to see a larger version.

More important is the analysis of this chart by Zero Hedge and others.  Some quotes from the article:

Interestingly, Dr Gurdgiev finds that the historic data (since 1987) shows that the "gold price has virtually nothing to do with demand for US Mint coins - in terms of volume of gold sold via coins."

He finds that the demand for gold coins has little to do with the price in general and that “something other than price movements drives demand for coins”.

This is something we have long asserted. Gold coin buyers are some of the least speculative participants in the market. They are safe haven and store of wealth buyers who are not guided by price and by making money.

Their motivation is one of financial insurance and of getting a “return of capital rather than return on capital.”
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...gold and particularly gold bullion remains owned by a tiny minority of people who are more aware of monetary and systemic risk than the broader public.

Another chart, this one at Doug Ross, shows we'll have to create 15 million jobs to restore the US job market to its 2007 levels.  Click Here for larger chart and source article.


The chart missing for this post is the chart that shows the fear of Obamacare among Americans.

How do you represent these feelings in a line chart?

How do you graph the fear that one may be told that a panel has decided their value to society does not rise to the level of a life-saving treatment?

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