About the project
An independent, ad-free index of US economic activity.
The National Economic Index is an independent, ad-free dashboard for tracking the US economy in real time. Built on the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis FRED API and updated every weekday, it exists to make high-quality economic data accessible to anyone who wants to read the economy carefully.
The index combines seven recession signals with 70+ headline indicators across inflation, labor, housing, yields, markets, growth, and global currencies into a single readable view. AI-generated commentary translates the data into plain English without speculation. The project is published in the public interest. No paywalls, no proprietary models, no advertising.
Every number can be traced back to a primary source — usually the BLS, BEA, Federal Reserve Board, Treasury, or Census Bureau — and every threshold or model on the site is documented in the methodology page.
If you find this useful, the best way to support the project is to share it with someone who would. If you'd like to be in touch, you can find the contact links in the footer below.
When the data is updated
The site auto-refreshes every weekday at 6 AM ET via a cron job that pulls the latest values from FRED and regenerates the AI commentary. Here's a quick guide to what's likely to be fresh on any given day.
| Day | What's likely to be fresh |
|---|---|
| Monday morning | New weekend, but data is still Friday's |
| Monday afternoon | First fresh market data of the week |
| Tuesday–Friday morning | Fresh data daily, new commentary daily |
| Thursday morning | Jobless claims and mortgage rate releases |
| CPI day (monthly, second Tuesday‑ish) | Big content moment, lots to write about |
| Jobs day (first Friday of month) | Biggest content moment of the month |
| FOMC days (8×/year) | Fed rate decisions, huge content moment |
| Saturday / Sunday | Same as Friday — site is “resting” |
Get in touch
Questions, corrections, ideas, or feedback? Send a message below and I'll get back to you. Name and email are required so I can reply.