Weekly Economic Indicators
An Introduction
There is a lot of noise in reporting on the US economy. Even the sources I’ve come to trust twist the data to fit their narrative. Everybody zooms in on the details that support what they already believe and then ignore all others. From Peter Schiff to Paul Krugman, I can’t help but feel that I’m getting duped by the entire economic reporting industry.
Purpose
If you feel the same, I believe this series will provide some peace of mind. In it, I will provide a summary of the week’s US economic indicators. These reports will have two objectives. First, to focus on ease of consumption. The summaries already published tend to serve professional investors and policy-makers. While the level of detail is nice, it becomes very easy to lose the forest for the trees. Second, to provide analysis grounded in the Austrian business cycle.
Format
As stated, the format will focus on ease of consumption. It will provide a letter grade for the entire week, which will be based objectively on the actual indices included in the summary.
- A: 80–100% of the indicators are above historical norms
- B: 60–80% of the indicators are above historical norms
- C: 40–60% of the indicators are above historical norms
- D: 20–40% of the indicators are above historical norms
- F: 0–20% of the indicators are above historical norms
The report will then grade each of the indicators analyzed and provide a short analysis.
Data
The list of indicators will be initially drawn from the New York Federal Reserve’s Economic Indicators Calendar. My objective will be to provide a solid look into how the economy is doing, so I may eventually build my own calendar. Also, this means I will probably not include every indicator in my summaries.
The source data will be linked in all cases, so if nothing else you should be able to use this report as a springboard for your own research.
Finishing remarks
Stay tuned for the inaugural post in this series. If you have any suggestions for good indicators, send them my way. If you enjoy the posts, leave a comment. I’m doing this for you guys, so knowing I’m helping others will help with motivation.
