Posts Tagged ‘economic indicators’

What matters most to YOU?

Friday, June 3rd, 2011

better-life-index.png

It’s all connected – your spending with your values, your investments with your spending, your everyday choices with your financial identity. But money isn’t everything. Right?

The Better Life Initiative is a project that really gets that. The people behind it – the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) – know that when it comes to national health and identity, a real understanding requires more than economic statistics. They’re not the first to realize that, of course, but they are the first to turn that philosophy into a majorly awesome interactive online experience.

This kind of information used to come from a group of analysts crunching numbers and telling us who ranked where in the great global economic struggle. The Better Life Initiative collects data, yes, but YOU choose how it’s ranked and displayed.

What’s the wealthiest nation that has affordable housing for its citizens?

How about the poorest nation with the highest life satisfaction?

Tweak the knobs to your soul’s content and see where your own personal life desires are really being played out in the world. Whenever someone creates and shares their ideal index on the site, OECD records it in a giant “what the people of the world really care about” database.

We picked Luxembourg as our favorite country, though we’re not sure where exactly it is.

What does your ideal life look like?

Americans Open Wallets Wider Than They Have In Three Years

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

The financial times they are a’changing. At least, that’s what these new statistics would have us believe…

  • In 2009, the American GDP (gross domestic product – a measurement of economic activity) dropped more than it had in sixty years. But like a phoenix made up of economic statistics, it rose back up in 2010.
  • We can’t know the exact cause, but the numbers say that people earned a little more, saved a little less, and spent a little more than they had in recent years.
  • Since consumer spending makes up almost three-quarters of all economic activity in the U.S., this is good news. But there are still those issues around high unemployment and a trashed housing market…

Facts & Figures

  • Consumer spending represents 70% of all economic activity in the U.S.
  • In 2010, spending rose by 3.5% – 0.7% of that was in December alone
  • The last time spending rose that high was in 2007 (pre-recession)

What do you think?

Have you been spending more lately? Do you think the economy will recover faster depending on where you spend your money (at independent stores versus chains)?

(Check out this week’s Today at TILE for a closer look at signs of life in the economy.)