This week’s feature about the mortgage crisis by Peter Coy includes a few conceptual graphics. Visualizations don’t always need to be about numbers—often a complicated idea can be come less intimidating when communicated with a simple chart. 

This trick is especially helpful when working against a 24-hr news cycle and you feel like you’ve read this story all year long and you’ve exhausted all the interesting relevant data in previous coverage. Sure, the numbers *may* be the same but the analysis is fresh.

THIS IS NEW NEWS PEOPLE. BREAKING. EXCLUSIVE HERE FIRST: WE ARE SCREWED.

-jd