Atlanta Fed Working Papers
Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
Bank of International Settlements Working Papers
Research on interbank lending.
Beige Book archives
Commonly known as the Beige Book, the Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions is published eight times per year. Each Federal Reserve Bank gathers anecdotal information on current economic conditions in its District through reports from Bank and Branch directors and interviews with key business contacts, economists, market experts, and other sources. The Beige Book summarizes this information by District and sector.
Boston Fed Working Papers
Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
Bureau of Economic Analysis
Economic statistics, analysis and announcements, from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Bureau of Labor Statistics
What’s New at the BLS: news releases, labor economic reports, data.
Center for Urban Policy Research
Research on housing, land use, urban poverty, community change, economic development, and environmental policy. From Rutgers University.
Center on Budget Policies and Priorities
A think tank focusing on government policies affecting low- and moderate-income people.
Cost of Living Calculator
Allows you to adjust dollar figures for inflation in the US, for any years from 1913 forward. Choose “all items” and then either a region or “U.S. city average.” Note that you can adjust either from an older year to a newer year, or vice versa. From George Landau’s NewsEngine. Uses the U.S. Consumer Price Index.
Deficit Watch
A tool for reporters dealing with economic issues, Deficit Watch is a bi-monthly report on mounting government and private sector deficits. U.S. DEFICIT WATCH is the Authoritative Monitor of Government and Other Deficits compiled from public records and budget documents. Fairly new site, but the limited number of reports they have are excellent and cut research time drastically.
ECONbase
Access point for economic journals. Abstracts and tables of contents for journals, mostly in international business and economics. It’s free to search through the titles, authors, abstracts and keywords. Abstracts are available free. Claims 65 journals, 13,500 abstracts, 3,400 papers online. From Elsevier.
EconData
Links to more than 300 sources of local and regional socioeconomic data in the U.S. A valuable resource for finding regional, state and local economic and marketing data on income, employment, housing starts and other economic statisticsstates, cities, counties and regions across the nation. Site includes a User’s Guide to Socioeconomic Data for Understanding Your Regional Economy, a 100-page “complete dummies” style guide to finding and using data. Developed by Joe Cortright and Andrew Reamer, and sponsored in part by the U.S. Economic Development Administration. Also offers and E-mail alert for registered users.
Economagic
Economic data series from many sources, with Excel spreadsheet files of each! “This page is meant to be a comprehensive site of free, easily available economic time series data useful for economic research, in particular economic forecasting.” A lot of the data are state and local employment data.
Economic Development Administration
Federal agency established to generate new jobs, help retain existing jobs, and stimulate industrial and commercial growth in economically distressed areas.
EconomicExpert
Economist magazine
Register to read articles from the current issue.
Europages
Economic indicators for European markets.
Expedia Currency Converter
Convert dollars to yen, pounds to guilders, etc.
FDIC State Economic Profiles
State-by-state snapshots of each US state’s economy, updated quarterly, from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Includes banking trends, but also a more general view of the economic health of a state. In PDF and HTML files.
Fed Catalog of Public Information Materials
A comprehensive guide to all online, printed, and audio-visual materials available from the Federal Reserve.
Fed mailing lists
Subscribe to Federal Reserve Economic Data series and publications on national and international economic trends.
Fed Regional Report Midwest
A view of the region’s economy, from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
Fed Regional Report Northeast
A view of the region’s economy, from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
Fed Regional Report West
A view of the region’s economy, from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
Fed research index
A searchable index of economic research by the Federal Reserve.
Fed Working Papers
Working papers, or research reports, from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors Finance and Economic Discussion Series.
Federal Reserve Economic Data
FRED has economic time series on employment, money supply, interest rates, producer prices, gross domestic product, et al. From the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Guide to Sources for Economic Development Data
Resources for analyzing your local industries, with weblinks, from the University of Minnesota. Includes links for every state. Plenty of advice on locating and using economic data.
Historical Stock Quotes from Yahoo
An easy way to track the day-by-day closing price of shares in the U.S. markets. Enter a stock ticker symbol, starting and ending dates, and the frequency you want (daily, monthly, weekly, or dividends). The resulting list gives you the option of saving a text file (.csv format), which you can open in a spreadsheet. Most charts go back no further than 1970. Data from Commodity Systems Inc.
Institute for International Economics Papers
Research on such subjects as globalization.
International Economic Trends
A quarterly compilation of data on the G-7 countries and the Euro area, including output, inflation, labor markets, interest rates, government budgets, international trade and more. From the Fed.
International Economic Trends annual
A graphical presentation of key economic data since 1986, covering 31 countries. Data on output, inflation, monetary aggregates, interest rates, government budgets, current accounts, exchange rates and foreign exchange reserves. From the Fed.
International Governmental Organizations
Links to organizations, from the African Development Bank to World Tourism Organization.
International Monetary Fund Working Papers
International economic research.
IRS Tax Statistics
Internal Revenue Service compilations on taxpayers: individuals, corporations, partnerships, tax-exempt organizations, estates, international, etc.
Kansas City Fed Working Papers
Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
Latin American Outlook
A monthly publication of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.
Living Standards Measurement Survey
From the World Bank. Household surveys are used to measure and understand poverty. Includes research reports and guides to using the data.
Mapstats
A one-stop shop for U.S. government statistics — broad ones, anyway — organized by state and county. Gives basic info on agriculture, population, business, crime, education, energy, and miscellaneous information.
Minneapolis Fed Working Papers
Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
Mission Critical Introduction to logic
Count the fallacies in your newspaper’s editorial today. Start with Mission: Critical, an “interactive tutorial for critical thinking, in which you will be introduced to basic concepts through sets of instructions and exercises.” Ignore the goofy graphics.
Monetary Trends
A review of U.S. monetary and financial conditions. From the Fed.
National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper
Research from a leading economics think tank.
National Economic Trends
A monthly snapshot of the state of the U.S. economy: output, inflation, labor markets, interest rates, government budgets, international trade. From the Fed.
Office of Trade and Economic Analysis
Trade information by industry sector, states, metro areas, etc.
OFFSTATS: Official Statistics on the Web
“OFFSTATS lists web sites offering free and easily accessible social, economic and general data from official or similar ‘quotable’ sources, especially those that provide both current data and time series. In the country lists, these are mainly web pages provided by statistical offices, central banks and government departments and agencies, whereas the topics list is comprised of links to the statistics pages of international organizations and associations and a few commercial sites.”
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Dev.
Working papers on international development.
Regional Economic Information System
Local economic data for states, counties, metro areas for 1969-. By the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Includes personal income, employment, transfer payments, and farm income and expenses.
Resources for Economists on the Internet
More than 1,000 resources on economics, for students and practitioners. From Bill Goffe of the University of Southern Mississippi.
San Francisco Fed Working Papers
Research from the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank.
Social Security Office of Policy
Summaries of data on Social Security recipients, and U.S. workers generally.
The Information Economy
Links to Web sites on the economics of the Internet, information goods, intellectual property. Compiles by Hal Varian of the University of California Berkeley.
The Panos Institute
The Panos Institute, in London, is an independent information provider that aims to stimulate public debate on under-reported global issues, with an emphasis on perspectives from developing countries. Media briefings on topics in the environment, development, information technology, AIDS and health. “Panos also works to strengthen media capacity in developing countries, helping journalists report development issues to both a local and global audience.”
The Urban Institute
Careful analysis of public policy issues, economic and social.
Tools for Business Journalists
Links from the master’s program in business journalism at Baruch College, the City University of New York.
Trade Resource Center
Lists resources and news about international trade and transportation along with information on U.S. customs.
U.S. Bureau of the Census
If you’re on the Census mailing lists, you hear about upcoming data releases in population and economics, so you can localize a national story, or nationalize a local one. If you’re not on the list, you’re out of luck. Subscribe to one of four lists: the monthly product announcement, the biweekly bulletin, a monthly list of feature ideas, and the press releases (including info on new data).
U.S. Financial Data
Weekly charts and tables relating to monetary and reserve aggregate amounts, selected interest rates, commercial bank loans and more. From the Fed.
Uniform Bank Performance Report
The great unknown document for comparing banks is the Uniform Bank Performance Report, which compares institutions (a) over time, and (b) against their peer group of same-sized institutions. You can buy UBPR’s, or read them for free at a Federal Reserve library. But now they’re online.
USDA Preparing for a New Millennium
The FY1998 report from the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Info on rural economy, food safety, family farm support.
USDA reports schedule
Latest data and analysis from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its agencies: Economic Research Service, the National Agricultural Statistics Service, the Foreign Agricultural Service, and the World Agricultural Outlook Board.
World Bank Policy Research Working Papers
Research on international economics.
World Currency Converter
Conversions based on today’s exchange rates.
World Directory of Think Tanks
Japan’s National Institute for Research Advancement has a massive list of major think tanks worldwide — 320 from 77 regions. This site provides contact information along with short descriptions of what the think tank’s focus is, lists of staff and publications, and brief background information.