Tessera

Trying something new with charts only about climate change this week. Let me know what you think about themed weeks. americaninequality.substack.com/p/charts-tha...

Charts that Explain the World No. 6

CLIMATE EDITION - Super El Niño, Smoke Cover and Temperature Increase, How Data Centers harm communities, and the Iran War’s harm on marine biodiversity

americaninequality.substack.com

Many budget cuts don't appear as a dramatic collapse. I see the small signs in delayed reports, emails to agencies that bounce, or stories of phone line that stops answering. By the time failure is visible, the savings are booked and the public is paying the price.

Only about one in four eligible households receives federal rental assistance. Unlike programs like SNAP federal housing aid does not automatically go to everyone who qualifies. Instead, strict federal budget limits mean the government only allocates enough money to serve a fraction of those in need

I keep noticing that zoning debates turn to neighborhood character before anyone names the housing shortage. Limits on apartments protect existing homeowners from change while renters absorb the price of scarcity. Housing policy is often a decision about who gets to say no.

Capital gains are generally taxed when assets are sold, not while they rise in value. I have been thinking about how different that is from a paycheck, where taxes arrive before the money hits a checking account. Timing is policy. Deferral is a benefit for people who can wait.

Measles was declared eliminated in the US in 2000. That did NOT mean the work ended. Vaccination, surveillance, and quick local response teams were doing their jobs very actively in the background. We don't think about the plumbing of our society until sewage bursts into the street.

I've sat through zoning hearings where a 60-unit proposal can becomes a referendum on parking, shadows, and neighborhood character. The people who need housing rarely have time to sit through 3 hours of testimony. The people who stay the whole time will not surprise you.

Maternal mortality has increased dramatically since the overturn of Roe v. Wade. We look at ectopic pregnancies, which stand nearly no chance of viable life, and how women in no-abortion states are seeing death rates rise. A real avoidable atrocity. americaninequality.substack.com/p/charts-tha...

Charts that Explain the World No. 5

Prices soar across the economy, African nations agree to accept US immigrants, shifting midterm forecasts, and rising maternal deaths.

americaninequality.substack.com

When a billionaire buys a local newspaper, a hospital chain, or hundreds of homes, I like to see which newspapers call this an 'investment' and which ones talk about the possibility of closed newsrooms, raised rents, and jobs moving away.

More than 40% of US renters spend over 30% of income on housing, according to Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies. Rents can rise overnight, but building homes takes years of approvals. Speed is a housing policy.

Every benefits form asks people with the least spare time to prove the most things. Americans waste 12B hours each year filling out forms, but low-income Americans are spending way more time on these than others. The eligibility rules punish a missed document more reliably than they catch fraud.

Automatic enrollment raised retirement-plan participation from 37% to 86% in a well-known study by Brigitte Madrian and Dennis Shea. The power of 'nudges' is well known and we could be doing far more to increase enrollment in good programs, but we don't always have the appetite.

Congress keeps funding the government through temporary continuing resolutions, sometimes only weeks at a time. That means hiring pauses, contracts get delayed, and agencies spend more time preparing for a shutdown than doing their actual work. Next possible shutdown is 12/11.

The Economist@economist.com · 3w ago

Great to see American Inequality highlighted in this post too

In a symbolic, but likely influential, vote the UN voted to replace the venerable Mercator map with a new depiction of the globe’s landmasses. How will it change the world? bit.ly/4dEQPR8

Jeremy Ney @jeremybney.bsky.social · 4w ago

For the last month, we’ve been running a series called Charts that Explain the World. We’ve seen a tremendous amount of excitement and positive support about these weekly briefings! Let us know what you think americaninequality.substack.com/p/charts-tha...

Charts that Explain the World No. 4

Explore our new series. This week, test scores drastic fall, the decline in safety for journalists, and the geography of authoritarian attitudes

americaninequality.substack.com

Jeremy Ney @jeremybney.bsky.social · last mo.

Runaway rental costs get all the headlines, but one of the biggest drivers of housing costs are now insurance premiums and property taxes. Core housing rent inflation rose 30% from 18-24, But insurance premiums rose 71% over that period, climbing more than 2x as fast. My latest:

Jeremy Ney @jeremybney.bsky.social · last mo.

The 3rd in our new series. Check out why workers are getting the worst bargain we ever have in 80 years americaninequality.substack.com/p/charts-tha...

Charts That Explain the World No. 3

Labor's Shrinking Slice, a Truer World Map, Fentanyl's Retreat, ICE's Shifting Target, and How Religiosity Shapes College Majors

americaninequality.substack.com

Jeremy Ney @jeremybney.bsky.social · last mo.

The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 since 2009. Rent, food, and childcare did not pause for 17 years while Congress argued over whether workers deserved a raise. Policy INACTION is still a policy. It just seems like now we are rewarding those employers who keep pay low.

I'm excited to share that we're launching a new newsletter called Charts that Explain the World! We've become so tapped into the world of data & graphics we wanted to share our best insights about the charts/maps shaping the big conversations of today americaninequality.substack.com/p/charts-tha...

Charts that Explain the World No. 1

China's Pressure on Taiwan, America's Deadly Roads, AI’s learning Trade-Off, and What We'd Sacrifice for a Longer Life

americaninequality.substack.com

Matthew Desmond has one of the clearest explanations about how homeowners get tax benefits for mortgage, while renters get higher monthly bills and the occasional lecture about skipping avocado toast. Federal housing policy has spent decades rewarding ownership after people can afford to buy.

It seems like every week another government dataset disappears. I have all these sites I used to visit that are no longer updating or the link stops working. Data suppression isn't always dramatic or well known, but it makes a big difference.

In 34 states, infant care costs more than in-state public college tuition. Parents are worried about saving for college, but the first 4 years of life (when earnings are often the lowest) are often the most expensive.

1965: CEO pay is 20x average worker pay 1978: CEO pay is 30x average worker pay 2025: CEO pay is 281x average worker pay From 1978 to 2024, top CEO pay grew 1,094%, while typical worker pay grew just 26%

The top 10% of Americans own roughly 87% of corporate stock. So when the stock market hits another record, the benefit is heavily concentrated before anyone starts celebrating the economy. The headline and the household experience are often miles apart.