At the end of every year, culture critics get to compile best of the year lists of films, music and books. At Quartz, we think data visualization deserves similar reflection. An increasingly important part of understanding complex information, the number of innovative and beautiful data visualizations produced publicly seems to rise every year.
One way to understand the places where economic ambition is greatest is to look to the sky. Countries with surging economies or companies that want to demonstrate their financial might often do it by building extremely tall buildings. In 2019, about 60% of all of the world’s extremely tall buildings expected to be completed are in China.
Due to a healthy US economy, the Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates. The Fed’s Board of Governors believes this is necessary so the economy doesn’t overheat and inflation doesn’t get out of hand.
The CPTPP is now a reality. For Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, and Singapore the massive trade deal has gone into effect. (It’s in force as of Dec. 30, which it now is in Asia.) The first round of tariff cuts will happen immediately. Vietnam will become the seventh member to join them on Jan. 14. The other four countries—Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, and Peru—still need their governments to ratify the deal.
Barack Obama very clearly understands the art of the year-end list.
It’s been a rough couple of years for US soccer. The US team did not qualify for the 2018 World Cup. The team fired its coach, and the most accomplished US player ever, Clint Dempsey, retired from the sport.
Action movies are killing at the box office. Comedies are dying.
At the end of every year, culture critics get to compile best of the year lists. At Quartz, we decided they shouldn’t get to have all the fun. Just like films and albums, economics deserves a little year-end reflection.
On Jan. 1, 2019 many low-income workers in the US will be getting a raise. Minimum wage increases go into effect on or around New Year’s Day in 21 states and 19 cities, according to data collected by the progressive nonprofit National Employment Law Project.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average got a late Christmas present today (Dec.26), recording its biggest single-day point gain ever.
On Jan. 19, Drake released the hypnotic “God’s Plan,” the first single from his forthcoming album Scorpion. By Jan. 21, it was the most-streamed song on Spotify across the world. “God’s Plan” would go on to be played over 1.1 billion times on the streaming site. It was the start of a remarkable 2018 run of dominance for a pop artist.
From 2010 to 2018, the state of California added about 2.3 million people according to new estimates released by the US Census. Its population, already the largest in the US, to close to 39.6 million. And California’s population increase of 6.2% has been greater than the 6.0% increase across the country.
You can learn a lot about the world by paying attention to trends in coding. Hot new tools in computer programming circles often illuminate what people care about and what businesses are investing in.
The perfect guide to understanding how an idea traveled in 2018—the Dante, if you will, of the year, navigating the circles of the internet’s underworld—is a dragon princess named Bowsette.
Cryptocurrencies have a dedicated but very small following. For crypto to truly go mainstream as a means of payment, retail businesses big and—especially—small will have to start taking it seriously.
Taylor Swift had an incredibly successful touring year. In 2018, she grossed $345 million in tickets sales to her concerts, according to the music-industry publication Pollstar.
On Dec. 13, 1978, at the close of a Communist Party gathering that lasted over a month, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping delivered a speech that laid out a pragmatic vision for China’s future. It was a country that was then not long out of the grip of the chaos and terror of the Cultural Revolution.
Many Americans over 30 may remember high school as a period of drunken debauchery. It’s not really like that anymore.
There is no better sign of the decline of the tablet than its falling share of traffic on one of the world’s most popular websites. A website, surprisingly or not, that specializes in porn.
In 2007, the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote a story calling for a “Green New Deal.” Friedman explained that he no longer believed that there was one silver-bullet program that would solve climate change. Rather, just as a variety of programs were part of former US president Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” for economic revitalization in the 1930s, so it would take a variety of investments in environmentally-friendly technologies to help stabilize the climate.
During a timeout in the second-quarter of the NBA game between the Dallas Mavericks and the Houston Rockets on Dec. 8, a singer played a song celebrating Mavericks’ rookie Luke Doncic. To the tune of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”, they praised the 19-year-old Slovenian’s skills on the court. “Halle-Luka,” the singer crooned.
Raise your hand if you know this person: They studied abroad in Italy, and so they only order an Aperol Spritz, even when you’re at a dive bar. They live in Brooklyn, probably Williamsburg or Bushwick, where they raise a small family of succulents. They lose their shit when the bodega runs out of Oatly, and they wear overalls in the summer and denim jackets in the fall—both heavily accessorized with enamel pins (vintage).
There is perhaps no better measure of a place’s quality of life than how long its residents are expected to live. Life expectancy reflects a neighborhood’s safety, the quality of its health care, its environment, and the wealth and mental health of the people who live there.
In early November, it looked like books about Donald Trump’s presidency—including Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury and Bob Woodward’s Fear—would define 2018. Michelle Obama wasn’t having it.
