Tea Leaves

I spend a lot of time on this blog discussing the general awfulness of the information design of government websites, particularly those with confusing interfaces or needless fun 'n' games kiddie pages. So it's nice to report that the official website of the Federal Reserve actually isn't too bad, despite the Fed's longstanding reputation for tight-lipped responses or cryptic communications with the press.

In particular, I thought that their Mortgage Comparison Calculator was an admirably straightforward example of a web generator with practical uses. I only wish that more people applying for subprime loans would have had access to simple number-crunching tools like this that could have averted many foreclosures.