[adldesigner]

Intriguing idea. A mechanism could be put in place to allow people to measure and keep an eye out on world markets.

This does happen though. Internet has allowed for this. Websites and blogs were for years warning about this upcoming crisis. Both the people, and the governments chose to disregards those alarms, right until the Housing market busted.

Unfortunately, people probably would not know what to do more than what the governments are showing right now. I guess that's why Economy is called a 'social science'.

[hopeless_case]

I am guessing that a lot of data analysis talent that used to be uninterested in trying to understand the world economy will now be much more interested.

We've had cheap computers and cheap internet access for a while now, but we haven't had as many people burned by the mismanagement of the world economy.

As I hear people propose what went wrong, I keep thinking,"Can I turn that into a useful metric?"

For example, I have heard that banks make their money mostly on fees much more than they used to, because they have become so quick to grant loans and then sell them.

This leads to the question: at any given time, what are the various significant ways in which banks are making money, and what is the allocation of bank profits into each type?

Now watch those ratios for shifts (both sudden and gradual) and ask yourself what might be going on when you notice a shift.

Does the ability to draw graphs like that currently exist?

If not, why not?