Visualizing the Financial Crisis

An earlier blog described how the Madoff scam has been visualized. Now comes FlowingData.com with a collection of graphics visualizing aspects of the financial crisis. There's a nice range of styles and content.


I've long been a fan of the site, which believes that data visualization lets non-experts make sense of it all. And the 27 visualization and infographics here really help explain things.

Plain English

It's been 30 years since the Plain English Campaign was launched in the UK. No, it's not a Monty Python sketch, but a grassroots effort against gobbledygook, jargon and misleading public information.

Now, the campaign is being used to protect the democratic process: the Local Government Association has published a list of 100 banned words that they hope will be eliminated from government communication. ""If a [governmental body] fails to explain what it does in plain English then local people will fail to understand its relevance to them or why they should bother to turn out and vote." Hard to argue with that.

There are some laughable words and phrases on the list. My favorite is "coterminous, stakeholder engagement"; The suggested alternative is: "talk to people".

Feel free to add your own jargon below.