1. The Lazy Practitioner’s Guide to Exploiting the Fed’s Data Resources Bob Rasche Director of Research Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis February 25, 2004

2. 1Where to get prepared materials? –National Economic TrendsNational Economic Trends –Monetary TrendsMonetary Trends –International Economic TrendsInternational Economic Trends –US Financial Data (weekly)Financial Data (weekly) 2Where to get data? -- FREDFRED 3How to convert data into your own pictures, slides or presentations

3. Part 1 Retrieving Prepared Materials

4. 1. Set magnification 2. Select Graphics Tool

5. Magnification in Acrobat should be set prior to using the graphics tool Magnification should be chosen to produce the graphic you want without much change in size. For full PowerPoint slides: –IET, NET,MT 1/2 width graphs ~ 300% –USFD (full page) ~ 100%

6. 3. Copy the selected area to the clipboard

7. Inflation and Prices –Page 9 (PDF 45k) -- Short-run View (175 % magnification Use Graphics Select Tool from Acrobat to define image Edit/copy on Acrobat Menu Go to Powerpoint slide Edit/Paste 4. Paste Selection into Powerpoint slide

8. Example: NET @ 300%

9. Example: USFD @ 125%

10. Example: USFD @ 150%

11. Example: NET @ 125% National Economic Trends –Inflation and Prices Page 8 (PDF 113k) -- Long-run View (175% magnification

12. Part 2 Where to get Data?

15. Two Choices of Data Format

16. Part 3 From Data to your own Pictures, Slides or Presentations

19. Caution: Data Lists are downloaded in Zipped format -- requires Winzip utility