Uncharted based on Report of the Executive Board for the Financial Year Ended April 30, 1998, International Monetary Fund, Washington D.C., 1998 Goal: Exaggerate the recovery of the Thai and Malaysian currencies, making the IMF look even better than it actually is In early 1998, the IMF helped rescue the Asian „tiger economies“ from the sudden collapse of their currencies against the US$ Distorted value display Using non-linear scales unnecessarily IMF help

Goal: Exaggerate the recovery of the Thai and Malay- sian currencies, making the IMF look even better than it actually is Technique 1: Break the value axis Uncharted based on Report of the Executive Board for the Financial Year Ended April 30, 1998, International Monetary Fund, Washington D.C., 1998 The IMF could just have deleted the bottom third of the chart. But this would not have altered the relative size of the recovery. Distorted value display Using non-linear scales unnecessarily

Goal: Exaggerate the recovery of the Thai and Malaysian currencies, making the IMF look even better than it actually is Technique 2: Use a truncated logarithmic scale to exaggerate the lower values, from which recovery took place, selectively. This is a staggering demonstration of graphical virtuosity. Report of the Executive Board for the Financial Year Ended April 30, 1998, International Monetary Fund, Washington D.C., 1998 Selected Asian Economies: Bilateral US$ Exchange Rates (USDollar per currency Unit; logarithmic scale; 5. January 1996 = 100) Use logarithmic scales only to show rates of change Distorted value display Using non-linear scales unnecessarily