Chart assignment
Charts to read and discuss
Read each chart, then answer its questions. Every chart shows its source and date; open it for a table of the numbers and the data to download.
Chart 1 of 2 · Food and drug safety
Which side effects are reported most for metformin?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
Nausea (30,587 reports) and diarrhea (28,674) are the reactions named most often in reports to the FDA, as of September 2026, that list a medicine containing metformin, including combination pills. Nausea and diarrhea are known stomach side effects of metformin; high blood sugar may describe the diabetes being treated, and lactic acidosis is a rare but serious known risk. A report is not proof the medicine caused the problem: anyone can send one, it lists every medicine the person was taking, and the same case can be reported twice. Reports that the medicine didn't work or was used differently than labeled are left out. Don't stop a medicine without talking to a doctor.
Questions to discuss
- In one sentence of your own, what does this chart show?
- Find the biggest change or difference in the chart. What might explain it?
- Who collected these numbers, and how recent are they? What else would you want to know before drawing a conclusion?
Source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) via openFDA (Public domain (U.S. government work); source U.S. Food and Drug Administration, openFDA) · Data as of Sep 30, 2026
Open the chart and its numbersChart 2 of 2 · Federal budget
How big is the federal debt compared with the economy?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
At the end of fiscal 2026 the federal debt was 125% of a year's GDP, everything the U.S. economy produces in a year. It fell from 96% in 1948 to a low of 32% in 1981, passed 100% in 2013 and jumped to 126% in 2020. This is total debt, including what the government owes its own trust funds, divided by GDP over the same fiscal year; it starts in 1948 because BEA's quarterly GDP starts in 1947, and recent GDP figures are revised.
How to read this chart
Each point divides the federal government's total debt by GDP, everything the U.S. economy produces in a year. At 100%, the debt equals one year of the whole economy's output. Comparing debt with the economy's size, instead of in dollars, makes years decades apart fair to compare.
Questions to discuss
- When was the debt smallest compared with the economy, and when was it largest?
- The debt can grow in dollars while this percentage falls. How is that possible?
- Pick a big jump on the chart. What events could make the government borrow much more in a short time?
Source: U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data, Historical Debt Outstanding; GDP from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (NIPA Table 1.1.5) (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Sep 30, 2026
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