Eco 372 Importance of Sites

The NAFCU site is a very useful site to use when trying to forecast economic trends and data. With this site you are able to research credit union data and trends. This can be very useful because credit unions are one of the largest banking systems in the United States. If you are able to see trends from these banks then you can better forecast the trends in the economy because they are a large part of the economy.
Datatrac's website is useful because it shows you a comparison of retail loans and savings rate at credit unions vs banks and divides them up from different states. Knowing the amount of retail loans within the economy can be very important when determining trends within the economy. This can show the amount of money that is owed back into the economy and you can estimate how much money the economy will generate within the next couple of months, if the loans are paid on time.
The FDIC website is very useful when determining trends and how the economy functions. Almost all banks are registered with the FDIC making the results you get from the website very broad. The information on the website is listed by region and state so you can see which states are functioning better and which ones need help. This can help to predict where certain states will be in a few years if they maintain the same economic condition. This is great when analyzing the US by regions to see where the most economic downfall is.
The NABE website basically gives forecasts for the economy from NABE members. They do surveys and all the research on the economic conditions. This site is very useful for the obvious reason that they forecast what they believe the economy will be like. Some people may not agree with all of their forecasts therefore it would be best not to strictly rely on what they have to say but it would be a great place to start when forecasting for the economy and looking for trends.
The BEA website delivers all the US Bureau's latest data and releases. This is extremely useful because all the information you need to forecast the state of the economy and to look for trends is listed on this website. It give you an insight into how the economy is being run.
The BLS website is great for showing the unemployment statistic. This is very useful because the unemployment rate is a huge part of the inner workings of the economy. If a percentage of people that are unemployed are receiving unemployment assistance from the government, that is money that the government does not have. It is important for forecasting purposes to know the amount of money going to these individuals and to keep track of the number of people receiving it.
The US Department of Treasury Resource Center is a great source of information because it shows opinions of the short and long term interest rates. Interest rates are a big part of the economy and determining trends. You can get a pretty good idea of how the economy is functioning and if it is doing well or not by looking at interest rates. If interest rates are up, that could mean that people have more money to spend and can afford higher interest rates whereas if the interest rates are lower that can be a sign that more people are low on money and cannot afford higher interest rates.
The CBO website you can find an analysis of the president's budget, economic forecasts and projections and historical economic data. It is very useful because knowing what the president's budget is can give a good insight on the standings of the economy. If the budget is lower that means that the economy may not be doing so well and taxes may need to be raised. If the budget is higher, more money needs to be spent or taxes need to be lowered.
The consensus economics website shows an organization that claims to be the world's leading economic survey organization. This organization polls more than 700 economists every month to obtain a consensus forecast. This is great because they are obtaining a wide variety of economists and using this to forecast how the economy will be doing. This can be useful for finding trends within the economy as well. This website seems to have a better track record for economic forecasting than some others because of their method. This could be very useful because it could give another opinion to go off of when forecasting for the economy.
The US Department of Commerce is a useful website because when you can retrieve historical economic data, you can better forecast how you think the economy will be and what some trends have been. This gives you great insight when forecasting for the future. There are usually trends within the economy and with this website you can see if there have been any trends within the last few years.
The Library of Economics and Liberty is a great place to start when doing research on the economy. This site provides a lot of links to different data sources within the economy. You can then use these other websites to do more research on the economy. It gives you everything in one place so this would be a great place to start when doing any kind of research or forecasting for the economy.