Alternatives and Supplements: Fun on the Internet

Measuring Economic Aggregates The Unemployment Rate The Bureau of Labor Statistics tells you everything you could want to know about the unemployment rate, and a lot more, too: www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm Weaknesses of Unemployment Statistics The text only talks about the U.S. unemployment rate. Here is a glimpse at what life looks like in other places: www.nytimes.com/2006/03/15/international/europe/15france.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print Measuring Inflation A blog run by a couple of economists addressed the issue of how to measure inflation: www.econbrowser.com/archives/2005/08/measuring_infla.html What would a product worth $1.00 in 1929 have been worth in 1955? You can use this calculator from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis to find out: www.minneapolisfed.org/research/data/us/calc/ Getting Real Problems Measuring Inflation The cost of inflation is addressed in this article from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco: www.frbsf.org/education/activities/drecon/answerxml.cfm?selectedurl=/9806.html Gross Domestic Product Limitations of GDP Statistics This article in The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics gives a comprehensive look at what GDP is, how it is measured, and what it is used for: http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/NationalIncomeAccounts.html Leading Indicators Important economic measures are summarized in this short article from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco: www.frbsf.org/education/activities/drecon/answerxml.cfm?selectedurl=/1999/9911.html These links were checked on July 5, 2008 Copyright Robert Schenk Why is this page here?