Take a look at this headline from last week: “Crime rates soar to record levels.” Then look at the chart underneath it. If you squint, you might miss that the y-axis starts at 94, not zero. What looks like a dramatic spike is actually a 3% increase.

This is not a niche problem for statisticians. It is a communication crisis. And economists, who deal in data for a living, are often the worst culprits.

The temptation is understandable. You have spent months building a model, the results are compelling, and you want your chart to reflect that. So you fiddle with the axes, zoom in on the interesting part, and suddenly a modest trend looks like a revolution.

But here is the thing: your reader does not know what you cut. They see what you show them.

Paul Samuelson once said that “the facts of economics are not facts in the sense of natural science.” Charts are not neutral windows on the world. They are arguments. The question is whether yours is honest.

The fix is simpler than you think. Show the full axis. Add a note when you must truncate. Let the data make the case without your thumb on the scale. Your credibility as a communicator is worth far more than one dramatic-looking chart.