Helpful Links
This is a running list of free tools I find useful and that most people have never heard of. Most come straight from the government or a public institution. They show you the raw data and the real reasoning behind the headlines instead of someone else's summary. I add to it as I find more.
Federal Reserve and economic data
Where the numbers actually come from
Build your own chart from hundreds of thousands of data series, transform any of them, then download or embed the result. The best public data tool the government runs.
Look for Projection Materials next to the March, June, September, and December meetings. Each dot is one policymaker's guess for where rates go. It is a snapshot of opinion, not a plan.
A running estimate of current-quarter GDP growth that updates as the data lands, weeks before the official number exists.
Turns the spread between the 10-year and 3-month Treasury into a recession probability twelve months out. This is the model behind most yield-curve headlines.
The yield curve posted every business day. The raw source everyone else is quoting when they talk about inversions.
Buy bills, notes, bonds, and I bonds straight from the government. No broker and no fee.
Eight times a year the twelve Fed districts report in plain English what local businesses are seeing. The Fed reads it before every meeting.
Weather
Closer to the source than any app
On any local page, scroll to the Forecast Discussion. It is the forecaster writing out their own reasoning and what the models disagree on.
Raw model output shown the way meteorologists actually read it.
Clean model maps, a step closer to the source than any phone app.
Real-time river and stream gauges nationwide. Useful near water or for flood risk.
The national source for severe weather and tornado outlooks, often days ahead of the warning.
Pilot weather. METARs and TAFs give precise, current, station-level conditions and short forecasts.
Other tools worth knowing
Public records and useful odds and ends
Search the actual filings of every public company. Read what a company tells regulators, not what it tells the press.
Every federal dollar, searchable by agency, recipient, and program.
Population, income, housing, and business data down to small geographies.
Official mileage with side-by-side comparisons and annual fuel cost estimates.
See any web page as it looked on a given date. Good for catching what got quietly changed.