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For Individuals and Teachers:
How to Use Web Sites for Tracking the Economy

Web Sites for Tracking the Economy makes it easy to track the economy—either for individuals or for those in teaching situations. The pages are specifically designed for tracking data on the status of the economy and for tracking monetary and fiscal policy. With these web pages, you don't have to wade through layers of links unrelated to the task of simply tracking the economy.

• This site is specifically designed for tracking the status of the economy.  Learning the monthly sequence of economic releases and market reaction to each release is one of the first steps in learning to track the economy.  Use the "Calendar" subsection under Economic News to keep up with release dates.  Some of the calendar pages also have market expectations for upcoming releases.  Students should be taught to compare market expectations with actual economic releases and then evaluate market reactions.  It's the difference between market expectations for an economic release and the actual release number that primarily affect market movement.  Some teachers like to include questions on tests about what indicators just came out and what some key results were.

• Use the summary data pages found on the site map or Economic News section for basic data for key releases for monthly economic indicators and for gross domestic product.  These pages have the headline numbers from each release with modest detail.  Actual numbers from economic releases can be compared with market expectations for impact on changes in stock markets, money markets, and exchange markets.

• For more detailed information from economic releases, use the links to agency news releases. These links are found on the Economic News page.

• Analytical commentary for classroom use and investor or personal use can be found with links on the Commentary subsection on the Economic News page.  The commentary can help with class discussions on the status of the economy.  Numerous private sector commentaries are linked.  These commentaries are perfect for use in classroom discussions.  Commentaries are valuable to investors also.

• The Monetary and Fiscal Policy page has links you can find on dozens of other sites but this page pulls them all together on one convenient page.  First, this page has links for key Federal Reserve information and analysis.  Links are included for Federal Reserve announcements, Fed forecasts for bi-annual reports to Congress, Beigebooks, and specific links for historical series on Fed policy changes in the Fed funds rate and discount rate.  Links also are included for the White House and Congress for policy specific links.  These links include discussion on the federal budget and its impact on the U.S. economy.  These links are especially useful for classroom discussion of the role of the Federal Reserve in the U.S. economy and for discussion U.S. fiscal policy.  Many of these links are good for investors to follow to anticipate policy changes and the impact on financial markets.

• The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis puts out a number of web-based publications—especially chart books—that give economy watchers an easy way to view long-term trends in various economic indicators.  These charts can be used for either teacher or student presentations or simply for investors to gain perspectives on the economy. See Monetary Trends magazine, Data, Charts, and Commentary from St. Louis Fed.

• To learn more about using economic indicators, an introductory article on economic indicators, "A Primer on Short-Term Linkages between Key Economic Data Series," can be found in Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Second Quarter 1998, pp. 40-54. This article is an excellent introduction to the monthly cycle of economic releases. It is a brief guide to some of the well-known short-term relationships between economic data series upon which many analysts focus. It explains how analysts use data in concurrent month forecasts and what some key relationships are, outlines the monthly calendar of economic releases, and reports on typical lags between various dependent and explanatory variables. The article attempts to clarify how analysts carry information from one economic release into their view of the strength of other economic indicators. Educators will find this article useful for higher level undergraduates and graduate students alike. Investors will find that this article helps pull together the tidbits of understanding of economic indicators as related to the basic monthly cycle of releases. 

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