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.

  1. When has the Treasury yield curve been inverted?
  2. Is violent crime in the U.S. going up or down?

Chart 1 of 2 · Interest rates

When has the Treasury yield curve been inverted?

The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.

The yield curve is inverted when short-term Treasury rates are higher than long-term ones: lending to the government for 2 years pays more a year than lending for 10. On this chart that is anything below zero. In October 2026 the 10-year rate minus the 2-year rate was 0.39 percentage points. Through mid-2026, the longest inversion in these monthly averages lasted 26 months, from July 2022 to August 2024, and the deepest was in March 1980, when the 2-year rate was 2.13 points higher. Inversions have tended to come after the Federal Reserve raised short-term rates quickly, while investors expected rates to fall later. The chart starts in June 1976, when the 2-year rate begins.

Questions to discuss

  1. In one sentence of your own, what does this chart show?
  2. Find the biggest change or difference in the chart. What might explain it?
  3. Who collected these numbers, and how recent are they? What else would you want to know before drawing a conclusion?

Source: Federal Reserve Board, H.15 Selected Interest Rates (monthly averages) (Public domain (Federal Reserve Board; cite the Board as the source)) · Data as of Oct 31, 2026

Open the chart and its numbers

Chart 2 of 2 · Crime

Is violent crime in the U.S. going up or down?

The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.

Down, over the long run. Police reported about 329 violent crimes per 100,000 people in 2025, about 59% below the 1991 peak of about 798, and the lowest since at least 1985. The rate rose in 2020 and 2022, then fell in 2023, 2024 and 2025. In 2021 the FBI stopped taking its old summary reports and accepted only its newer, more detailed system (NIBRS); many police departments hadn't switched yet, so agencies covering only about 77% of Americans reported, against 88 to 98% in other years, and 2021's number is less certain. Rates count only the agencies that reported, so they differ a little from the FBI's national estimates, and the FBI widened its definition of rape in 2013.

How to read this chart

Each point is the number of violent crimes police reported for every 100,000 Americans that year. The line starts at zero, so its height shows the true size. In 2021 the FBI changed how it collects reports and fewer police departments sent numbers, so that year is less certain than the others.

Questions to discuss

  1. Find the year with the highest rate. About how much lower is the rate in the latest year?
  2. Many people say they think crime is rising. How could that belief and this chart both seem true to different people?
  3. Why might a change in how crimes are counted, like the one in 2021, make one year hard to compare with the rest?

Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, Uniform Crime Reporting Program (Public domain (U.S. government work); source FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program) · Data as of Dec 31, 2025

Open the chart and its numbers

Teachers: make your own chart assignment, or change this one. Free, no account needed.