You Want Data? FRED to the Rescue.

Austin Frakt posted an old New York Times chart of personal expenditures, and a reader has a question:


The answer, as it is so often, is FRED, the economic data aggregator from the St. Louis Fed. Here it is:

When I use data from FRED, I always include it as a source. Why? Because it’s a great service, and deserves to get more credit. They don’t cover literally everything—for some reason, the Census Bureau doesn’t share its data, for example—but they cover a helluva lot. And once you learn how to use it, you have fast, convenient access to data from dozens of agencies. I probably could have dug up this chart over at the BEA, but it would have taken me a while. FRED made it the work of a few minutes.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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