Released this October, the MasterCard Emerging Markets Index highlights the 65 key cities that are driving growth worldwide. These countries are ranked according to their index score, derived by a panel of experts in the global economy. The report also features a look into specific factors that make each city important for corporations and others to consider. This index examines the economic trends that distinguish these 65 cities from others around the world.

This report emphasizes two compelling trends that have impacted the global economy and are critical to the development of emerging markets. The first being increased concentration of global commerce into urban areas/centers. Both demographic and economically, people and businesses have migrated to the cities of the world. The second trend is the globalization of capital, talent, information, technology, and even intellectual property. Borders and barriers have been eliminated as the world has integrated itself into one seamless economy.

As for the results, Shanghai, China is the top ranked metropolitan area to contribute to economic growth. Shanghai has an index value of 66.01, while Beijing follows in a close second with a value of 62.35. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at all of this data from a geographic perspective, to see if there were any interesting correlations.

To do so, I simply geocoded the data and uploaded the CSV file with the latitude and longitude measurements into Finder! I then proceeded to export this dataset into Maker! so that I could visualize the data. Being able to see the data on a map instantly shows a clustering of the top ranked cities. The following map uses graduated symbols correlated with the Index Value; as you can see that the Asia Pacific region dominates the Emerging Markets Index. Another notable area is in Eastern Europe, where cities like Budapest, Warsaw, and Moscow can be found having a significant impact on worldwide growth.

The Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa region represents over half of the study’s 65 cities. The primary reason for this is the dominance of China in the rankings; of the top 30 cities, 15 are Chinese. This map is zoomed in on China and highlights China’s impact on the global economy.

Please visit Finder! And Maker! to view all of the datasets on the Emerging Markets Index.

Popularity: 9% [?]

There has been a lot of talk about Barack Obama’s tax plan this political season. The biggest question seems to be, who will see their taxes increase? Well we decided to take a closer look at WHERE in the U.S. people will be most affected by the Obama’s tax increase.

First, to clarify, families with an income above $250,000 dollars would see their tax rates return the levels from the 1990’s. According to the Obama campaign, this tax increase will affect about 2% of the population.

So where are these people who earn $250,000? Are they from Republican or Democratic states? Are they concentrated or dispersed?

Since the US Census only provides data for incomes of $200,000 or more, I decided to look at house prices. An individual or family earning $250,000 a year could afford a home valued at about $1 million so we thought that, aside from the obvious margin of error, homes valued at $1 million or more would be a good indicator of who would be affected by Obama’s tax increase. The U.S. Census 2007 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates provides the number of $1 Million+ Owner Occupied Housing Units by state and county. After uploading that data to Finder!, we played around with some maps in Maker!and found some interesting patterns.

See the datasets (states, counties) and map.

Most of the states that had the most $1 Million + Homes were no surprise, however a few were unexpected. Take a look…the first map shows the number of $1 Million + Homes per state as well as 50 counties with the most $1 Million + Homes and the second shows just the counties have the highest number of $1 Million + Homes.

See the datasets (states, counties) and map.

It’s interesting that some of the states with the most homes only have one county that appears in the top 50 list. These counties, such as King County, WA, Maricopa County, AZ, Fulton County, GA, Hennepin County, MN, and Cook County, Il, have more than a third of all of the $1 Million + Homes in their state.

See the datasets (states, counties) and map.

So we know where the people are. Now, how might that affect the election?

Let’s take a look at the most current presidential election polls from USA Election Polls. This map shows that many of the states with the highest percent of $1 Million + Homes are also leaning toward Obama in this year’s election. In other words, the states that have the highest percent of residents that earn over $250,000 and therefore will be most affected by Obama’s tax increases are in states that are voting for Obama.

Of course, a few of those states are highly contested states including Florida, Virginia, and Colorado. Why is that? Well, its important to point out that the percent of million dollar home owners is only around 2% so they are not going to have a huge impact on an election. However, this demographic may be more likely to vote in an election than those earning less money.

See the datasets for states and polls.

The pattern that million dollar home owners tend to live in democratic areas, is also evident at the county level. This map shows the top 50 counties based on who they voted for in the 2004 presidential election. Of the 50 counties, 30 voted for Kerry and 16 voted for Bush. Most of those counties that voted for Bush are in Southern California, Texas, New Jersey, and Illinois. All but Texas voted for Kerry and are in no threat from turning red this year. Of course, taxes did not play as big a role in the election in 2004.

See the dataset and map.

So why is the McCain campaign making such a big issue of the Obama tax plan? Since it will affect mostly people in blue states, maybe they hope to change some minds there. However it seems that such a scenario is unlikely even though people who earn more money do tend to vote Republican. Exit polls from 2004 show that those who earned $50,000 or more voted Republican.

Perhaps the Obama tax plan, which claims it will give tax breaks to those earning less than $200,000, may persuade some of the 98% + of those in the red states who would qualify to vote for Obama. By appealing to the $200,000 earners, maybe Obama is attempting to raise the democratic appeal to income levels above $50,000. It will be interesting to see what happens on Tuesday, especially to see how the richest counties vote this time around.

Popularity: 18% [?]

The upcoming election is becoming more interesting and dynamic every day. While the candidates contest, secure, or historically change battleground states, we have been updating datasets of the latest state by state polls to Finder!. Taking a look at these polls as they change over time, we can get an understanding as to how the public and the campaigns are interacting and how states are reacting to important events, such as the conventions, vice-presidential choices, the debates, and the economic crisis.

The image below shows the candidates’ lead in the polls from the end of August till now. It is interesting to watch some battleground states, such as Montana and Pennsylvania, become solidified while other contested states such as Ohio, North Carolina, and Florida change back and forth between candidates.

Check out this interactive map showing the latest changes in U.S. Election polls by state. The date on each map represents the date that the polls were updated and not necessarily the date of the polls for each state.

To see how this election map compares to 2004, here is a map of the state won by Bush and Kerry. You can see that many of the states that bush won are either contested or are supporting Obama in this election.

Also it’s not necessarily the number of states won but number of electoral votes. This map shows the states according to their electoral votes. Many of the contested states are the ones with more votes at stake.

It is important to remember, when looking at polls, that they are often inaccurate and sometimes even bias. Many times, misleading polls actually have the potential to sway the popular opinion of a candidate and can have an unfair effect on the outcome of an election.

The poll maps were made from datasets in Finder! collected from USA Election Polls, who collect the latest state by state poll results and post them on their website.

Those datasets can be found at the following links.

• October 20th Election Polls
• October 14th Election Polls
• October 2nd Election Polls
• August 28th Election Polls

The dataset for the election of 2004 can be found here and the electoral votes data can be found in any of the poll datasets. The map of the polls can be found here, the map of the 2004 results can be found here and the electoral votes map here.

States are polled by different polling companies and polls take place over different time periods but are updated when the newest ones are released. Battleground states are usually the most frequently polled.

Polling sources include Rasmussen Reports, Survey USA, NBC Mason Dixon, Insider Advantage, American Research Group and more.

Popularity: 12% [?]