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Need an econ graph? Go to FRED.

FRED charts have exploded all over the financial blogosphere.  The site is easy to use and addictive if you're a data hound or a market nerd.

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Issei Kato/Reuters/File
A money changer shows some one-hundred U.S. dollar bills at an exchange booth in Tokyo in this file photo. The FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) website has become an invaluable tool for statistical information about the US economy.

This is great - I was out with Joe Weisenthal the other night after he spoke with the St Louis Fed people by phone, he was blown away at the output of such a small group of people when it comes to the FRED charting section.  I guess this is an example of a quasi-government thingie actually exceeding our expectations in terms of productivity.

FRED charts have exploded all over the internet now and virtually any presentation you attend will feature them in the speaker's slide deck.  The site is easy to use and addictive if you're a data hound or a market nerd or whatever.

Just how big has the site become?  Some stats from Joe's piece:

  • 1.9 million visits from 200 countries (42% increase over 2010)
  • average 6,000 visits per day
  • 14.5 million page views during 2011
  • 13,000 visits from Twitter during 2011
  • Approximately 600,000 custom FRED Graphs were created during 2011
  • GeoFRED received 15,000 visits during 2011
  • ALFRED received 48,000 visits during 2011
  • During Q4 2011, 14.7 million data calls sent through API
  • 15,000 new series added during 2011

Anyway, Joe goes behind the scenes and interviews the team behind this phenomenal site, click over!

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