FRB St. Louis is Far Ahead of the Data Pack

The email below arrived recently from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. It reminds me of something that's hardly a secret, but that nevertheless merits applause, namely that FRBSL's Research Department is a wonderful source of economic and financial data provision (FRED and much more...), and related information provision broadly defined (RePEc and much more...).

FRED, ALFRED, GeoFRED, RePEc, FRASER, etc. -- wow!  FRBSL supplies not only the data, but also intuitive and seamless delivery interfaces. They're very much on the cutting edge, constantly innovating and leading.

Other Feds of course supply some great data as well. To take just one example close to home, the Real-Time Data Research Center within FRB Philadelphia's Research Department maintains a widely-respected Real-Time Dataset and Survey of Professional Forecasters (and of course my favorites, the ADS Index and GDPplus).

But FRBSL is in a league of its own. Maybe there's been an implicit decision within the System that FRBSL will be the de facto data guru? Or maybe it's just me, not looking around thoroughly enough? I suspect it's a bit of both.

In any event I applaud FRBSL for a job marvelously well done.

Subject: Come visit the St. Louis Fed at the 2014 AEA Conference in Philadelphia

E-mail not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Please join the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis at the American Economic Association meeting in Philadelphia Jan. 3-5, 2014 Philadelphia Marriott Downtown | Franklin Hall Stop by our booths, B322 and B321, to talk to St. Louis Fed experts and learn more about our free data toolkit available to researchers, teachers, journalists and bloggers. The toolkit includes: RePEc Representatives of the popular bibliographic database will be available to discuss the various websites, answer questions and take suggestions. FRED® (Federal Reserve Economic Data), our signature database with 150,000 data series from 59 regional, national and international sources; ALFRED® (Archival Federal Reserve Economic Data) Retrieve versions of economic data that were available on specific dates in history. Test economic forecasting models and analyze the decisions made by policymakers; GeoFRED® Map U.S. economic data at a state, county or metropolitan statistical area (MSA) level; FRASER® (Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research), a digital library for economic, financial and banking materials covering the economic and financial history of the United States and the Federal Reserve System; FRED add-in for Microsoft Excel, mobile apps for iPad, iPhone and Android devices; Also, take the opportunity to learn more about EconLowdown, our award-winning, FREE classroom resources for K-16 educators and consumers. Learn about money and banking, economics, personal finance, and the Federal Reserve. See you there. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis | www.stlouisfed.org To stop receiving these emails, click here to unsubscribe. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis | P.O. Box 442 | St. Louis, MO 63166