Fun with graphs

I updated the blogroll earlier today with a couple of new links. One of the new additions was a site I'd forgotten about for over a year, Econopundit. I found a couple of posts there that tickled my fancy, primarily because I'm a visual thinker (show me a graph and I can "get" just about any economic or statistical concept, make me read it and I'll be lost as lost can be).

This one deals with new CBO data about the Bush tax cuts (a graphic illustration that shows you just what I would think every leftie wants to see: The 'Rich' are paying more in taxes than the non-rich in spite of seeing their own tax bill reduced. Even better, with the numbers 'normalized' you see that we've moved from a situation where the middle percentile of tax-payers paid the most in the early '80s to a situation where the "rich" pay a higher rate than they used to, and the middle-, lower-percentiles pay less.). So exactly what is their problem?

This second post addresses the issue of overtime pay, current law and "moonlighting." An email from a reader puts it all in perspective, with help from a pretty graph:

Frankly, I would love to be able to offer some of my employees the extra hours they now spend delivering newspapers at minimum wage. At non-overtime rates I'd be able to pay them $7/hour more than they currently get in their second jobs. But of course I can't do that legally under current legislation. Apparently the Santorum bill would change all that, but the ongoing ideological war against business and markets may be enough to defeat Santorum.