One reason for the difficulty in forecasting economic events is that predictions must be based largely on statistics that are often both old and incomplete. Last week the Commerce Department sought to clarify the numbers game by introducing a new monthly publication called Business Cycle Developments, prepared with the help of Manhattan's private and prestigious National Bureau of Economic Research. The 65-page guide, which Commerce will sell for $4 per year, gives economists an important new tool by 1) measuring more aspects of the U.S. business cycle than any other publication and 2) publishing the statistics much faster than ever...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
