Gothamist: NYC Economy "Rapidly Deteriorating," Comptroller Says

Wza

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:41:41 -0500

We're doomed! Dooomed! Sorry..had a Simpsons moment.

Peter

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:29:10 -0500

I have a question: Where do we bury the bodies that didn't get medical care with Medicaid Right next to the tens of thousands of rotting corpses from California, which spends far less per capita on Medicaid than New York does. Oh wait ...

JH4285

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:28:30 -0500

I agree with Kiljoy. Epic Excel Fail. The chart seems to show that there were only about 10,000 jobs in New York in October, which is just crazy cakes. The title makes it all the more confusing. The proper way to represent a decreasing rate of job growth would have been to show percentage growth over 2007 on the y-axis. Percentages are more meaningful than absolute numbers.

KiljoyWasHere

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:07:47 -0500

Thank you for the explanation of the chart. Though as intuitive charts go, this is a big old FAIL.

matty

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:50:55 -0500

The forgot the key words "more" or "new" jobs. Hence the confusion.

mrguy

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:50:46 -0500

Kent Brockman: Hordes of panicky people seem to be evacuating the town for some unknown reason. Professor, without knowing precisely what the danger is, would you say it's time for our viewers to crack each other's heads open and feast on the goo inside? Professor: Yes I would, Kent.

ANGRYGOD11

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:49:33 -0500

I have a question: Where do we bury the bodies that didn't get medical care with Medicaid?

hungryghoast

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:46:43 -0500

if you read the title of the chart, it makes sense. Each bar represents the amount of jobs (and here comes the part I guess was ignored by the chart complainers) "compared to the same month in prior year" ... In other words, there were about 50,000 more total jobs in NY in Jan 2008 as there were in Jan 2007... Now, in Oct 2008 there were only 10,000 MORE jobs as compared to 2007. Granted it's not the most elegant chart, but it does make sense.

Peter

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:42:34 -0500

I have five sure-fire solutions for solving the budget mess: 1. Cut Medicaid. 2. Cut Medicaid. 3. Cut Medicaid. 4. Cut Medicaid. 5. Cut Medicaid. Any questions?

Jen Chung

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:41:51 -0500

Thanks, Politburo--I was going to say the same and add that it's supposed to show the decline in job growth.

MFer

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:41:16 -0500

Actually according to the chart, until OCT 2008 we were experiencing job growth (comparing month to month a year ago) ... though the growth was slowing and fast.

Politburo

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:40:48 -0500

The chart makes sense, and the title tells you exactly what the data is. The bars are (Jan 08 total jobs) - (Jan 07 total jobs), and so on for each month.

matty

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:40:15 -0500

What do I want? I want a chart that makes sense!

NannyState

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:33:13 -0500

What the fuck do you want? A smiley face pasted over the news? Do any of you really believe that the city is undergoing job growth? The reason these estimates are deliberately negative is to avoid nasty surprises that would shake confidence in the city much more than a dour forecast. Chances are, the problems will not be that severe but even if they are worse, this forecast lays out that context and thus,the psychological blows won't be so hard. The question to ask is what is the city doing about this? Raising taxes? There has to be deep cuts and no more taxes. That's what happens in a deep, protracted recession. Nobody survives unscathed.

MFer

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:27:15 -0500

The chart is completely misleading.

Tower18

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:25:20 -0500

Chart seems to indicate there are only 10,000 total jobs in New York City. ROFL.

matty

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:18:14 -0500

"The title of that chart can't possibly relate to its content. There is no information from the prior year. " seconded

chris

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:17:20 -0500

Woo, meaningless charts and fear-mongering. Seriously, if you're going to write a piece like this can't you be a little more illustrative rather than just pulling scary quotes and decontextualized figures? I think we're in this mess because people operated on sound bytes and not information.

David McCaffredy

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:10:08 -0500

Yeah - way to bring down the world economy, John. I hope you're happy with yourself now - you've ruined Christmas.

KiljoyWasHere

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:59:45 -0500

The title of that chart can't possibly relate to its content. There is no information from the prior year.

r1b2

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:56:07 -0500

So, is it time to kill and eat our young yet?

RatherBe

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:49:29 -0500

Another alarmist article by John Del Signore. I've got no problem with alarmist journalism, but why is the same guy writing so many 'the sky is falling' articles?