FRED

From time to to time, engineers need to be able to access economics data - - one-stop-shopping online for macroeconomics data has always been a bit of a mystery.  What was needed was a site for professionals along with ordinary citizens - - where you could pull apart the data and come to your own conclusions.

The financial crisis in 2007 tarnished the image of the professional economist - - producing a collective, "Where can I see the data myself and come to my own conclusions?"  One of the best new sites in the era of "do-it-yourself" macroeconomics is FRED, maintained by the Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis, enabling anyone with a connection to the Web to download data on everything fromm local home-price indexes to credit-card balances to weekly fluctuations in diesel prices.

Have fun and enjoy!