Question: I like to analyze the key economic statistics -- to try to determine what stocks to buy or sell. But when the figures are given in the newspaper, they rarely include past figures for comparison. Where can I find those?

Victor

Answer:

Dear Victor,

You're absolutely right to want the history of the economic statistics. After all, the pattern is what is so important for investors to have. Two places to begin your search are the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Federal Reserve.

Bureau of Economic Analysis

The BEA is the group that generates the all-important Gross Domestic Product. Click HERE to read a previous column on the GDP.

The Bureau also provides data on personal income, corporate profits and the current account balance. The latter is a quarterly look at U.S. foreign trade. Corporate profit data is especially relevant to your needs -- use it to determine which industries are currently the best and the worst performing.

Go to www.bea.gov and click on "Interactive Data" on the left-hand side menu. Then click on "National Income & Product Accounts."

Federal Reserve

In order to know how the Central Bank views our economy, you'll want to take a look at the "Beige Book." This report comes out two weeks before the Fed meets to discuss the nation's monetary policy and determine changes (if any) in interest rates.

Go to www.federalreserve.gov and click on "Monetary Policy."

I also discussed the Beige Book in depth in an earlier column. Click HERE.

The Federal Reserve site also provides the weekly national average of interest rates. Go to "Economic Research & Data" and then clicking on the "statistics" button.

TIP: While on the site, I recommend downloading some of the Fed's publications, including Fed 101 and Building Wealth. Simply click on "Publications & Education Resources" on the menu on the left.