Meet FRED, every wonk’s secret weapon

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Meet FRED, every wonk’s secret weapon

By Todd C. Frankel August 1

....
FRED stands for Federal Reserve Economic Data. It serves as an online clearinghouse for a wealth of numbers: unemployment rates, prices of goods, GDP and CPI, things common and obscure. Today, FRED is more than a little bit famous, thanks to the public’s fascination with economic data.

Nobel Laureate economist Paul Krugman is a huge FRED fan. Harvard economist Greg Mankiw uses it. Former Fed chairman Ben Bernanke cited it in a textbook. The site Business Insider called it “the most amazing economics Web site in the world.”

“It definitely has a cult following,” said Eddy Elfenbein, a financial analyst in Washington and editor of CrossingWallStreet.com. For him, FRED has emerged as the central hub for finding and sorting through the reams of financial data. He can spend hours looking up trivia such as the historical price of copper in Britain. “It’s addictive,” Elfenbein said.

{Keith} Taylor runs FRED from a high-walled cubicle tucked inside the St. Louis Fed, a few blocks from the Gateway Arch. He leads a team of five, a small group considering this regional Fed branch employs more than 1,000 people. The branch does plenty of its own economic research. It also hosts projects with names such as FRASER (economic history archive), ALFRED (archival economic data) and CASSIDI (banking analysis). ... But FRED is the star.
....

Todd C. Frankel is a reporter for Storyline. He previously worked at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. You can follow him on Twitter: @tcfrankel.

You would think they'd have given the link, wouldn't you?

Federal Reserve Economic Data

[Laelth]

1. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[Fred Sanders]

2. The truth is out there, suppressed by the media also coordinating the GOP voter suppression.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. I read it in the Washington Post.

Just saying.......

[Fred Sanders]

4. Of course OP's are allowed that point to truth, but it is some pissing into the hurricane.