In today’s world of big data and mass media saturation, statistics and graphs are constantly being thrown at us. For researchers, wading through, and making sense of, the sea of numbers is as much about the journey as the destination. But for most people who are simply trying to live their lives, all these facts and figures appear like so much street noise to be filtered out, or flies to be swatted away.
When economic data is used to comprehend the world around us, we tend to focus on a handful of well-known and easily understood statistics, like the growth rate of output (Gross Domestic Product, or GDP), or changes in stock prices.
