Data Points: New resources and other noteworthy developments

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis has posted a financial crisis timeline of events and policy actions taken since August of 2007. The timeline includes links to official documents and Congressional testimony about various aspects of the crisis, with regular updates posted. See the timeline here.

In response to data users’ concerns about the large and growing discrepancy between two measures of job loss, the Bureau of Labor Statistics began in late January to provide state employment estimates derived from its current employment statistics (CES) program that are more consistent with national estimates from the same survey, also known as the payroll employment survey. On a not seasonally adjusted basis, total private employment fell 762,000 in November using national data, while the sum of the states from CES data show a loss of 267,000 jobs. Go here for more information on the discrepancy and a review of the estimation process.

If you are tracking the twists and turns of the economic stimulus package or other legislation as it moves through Congress, check out the CBO Director’s Blogs posted by Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf for highlights of the latest analysis.

In an article “Toward Better Measurement of Innovation and Intangibles,” three economists with the Bureau of Economic Analysis describe the agency’s plans to explore new methods of measuring the nation’s investment in a variety of intangible assets, such as human capital, education, and training. BEA’s plan for incorporating more intangible assets into core gross domestic product measures calls for adding research and development and artistic originals (motion picture and sound recordings) in 2013.  The article is from the January 2009 issue of BEA’s Survey of Current Business.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York offers a dynamic U.S. map showing bank card and mortgage delinquencies down to the county level.  Enter the name of a county or state or click on the area on the map and see results for the current quarter and the change over four quarters.

Why did some of the biggest players in the industry collude with abusive traders?  “The Economics of the Mutual Fund Trading Scandal” by Federal Reserve economist Patrick McCabe explores investment patterns and firm dynamics that contributed to many of the scandals that rocked the mutual fund industry in 2003. “Management companies' decisions to allow abuses that harmed themselves as well as mutual fund shareholders convey a broader lesson, that shareholders, customers, and fiduciary clients be cautious about relying too heavily on firms' own self-interest to govern their behavior,” McCabe wrote.  The staff working paper, part of the Fed’s Finance and Economics Discussion Series, was posted in January.

When the International Monetary Fund updated its world economic outlook in late January, it predicted that the global economy will expand at an anemic 0.5 percent for all of 2009. That would be the slowest rate of growth since World War II. The first order of business is to institute policies that restore the financial sector and the flow of credit, the IMF said.