EconomicIndicators.gov being closed

R

rickf

Feds to close economic indicator site
EconomicIndicators.gov will be shuttered on March 1 because of 'budgetary
constraints.'
By Heather Havenstein

http://tinyurl.com/yqjgef


February 15, 2008 (Computerworld) It may soon be harder to track whether the U.S. is in fact sliding into a recession with the closing of the U.S. Department of Commerce's EconomicIndicators.gov Web site. The site provides a public portal to key economic indicator data from the government.

The department's Economics and Statistics Administration announced that the site, which provides daily updates of key economic indicators released by the government's Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U.S. Census Bureau, will be shut down on March 1 because of "budgetary constraints."

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Given the current US economic climate, you have to wonder the rationale behind this decision and try reeeal hard to avoid thinking conspiracy theories in an Administration prone to favoring info suppression and secrecy over things it finds embarrassing or problematic. I mean, budget considerations? They're still collecting the data.....and besides, it's not *that* expensive to maintain a website in 2008.

Sure, the info is available elsewhere -- but.....I dunno. But based on similar things over the past 8 years or so, this just smells fishy to me. :(
 
we're in such bad shape, we can't even fund a website????

com'on. Time to get the fuck out of iraq if that's the case.

This has to be one of the stupidest things i have ever seen. I've just about had it with this crazy shit.
 
There are 70,000 members on ET. I officially give the government permission to take $50 of that $600 rebate that I am getting and use it to keep these kinds of sites up. If the other 70,000 ET members do the same thing, that is $7M. That should keep that site going for 10 years+.

I still have $550. I wonder what other good I can do with it other than spend it on crap I don't need.

nitro
 
I wouldn't call giving that money back to the government to squander put to good use, but that's me, and it's your money.

Put on a fish fry for your neighborhood maybe? I'd like that...

Quote from nitro:

There are 70,000 members on ET. I officially give the government permission to take $50 of that $600 rebate that I am getting and use it to keep these kinds of sites up. If the other 70,000 ET members do the same thing, that is $7M. That should keep that site going for 10 years+.

I still have $550. I wonder what other good I can do with it other than spend it on crap I don't need.

nitro
More...
 
Odd, but I am not aware of any budgetary constraints for an organization that prints money for a living!

As mentioned by the O.P., these numbers will still be available, just not at this site. This site just made it easy for the general public to view them. Either way, they lie about the numbers anyways...

IMHO, $175.00 bucks a year gets you much more accurate data: http://www.shadowstats.com/
 
Quote from nitro:

There are 70,000 members on ET. I officially give the government permission to take $50 of that $600 rebate that I am getting and use it to keep these kinds of sites up. If the other 70,000 ET members do the same thing, that is $7M. That should keep that site going for 10 years+.

I still have $550. I wonder what other good I can do with it other than spend it on crap I don't need.

nitro
More...

I would except I'm not getting a red cent back which is ironic given that I pay more tax in each year than those getting the full $600 do in a a decade or longer. The cash is irrelevant but the principle of it does stick in one's craw. I used to be one of those democrats that argued that the rich deserved to pay more because they enjoyed more of the bounty of the country than others did but that arguement lost its appeal some time ago. The waste of my tax $ in a Iraq was a real wake up call and the more I learned about the federal budget the more I resented paying far more than my fair share.

People complain about any tax that doesn't tax the higher income levels at a greater rate than lower income levels, in other words they want taxes to be progressive, but what that does is unfairly tax success and it is emblematic of so much of the way this country is structured. Successs is not encouraged but penalized. It is no surprise that the US growth rate is falling.

If we can't have a fair tax (fairtax.org) then at least lets have a flat tax. Without the deterrent of a progressive tax system that is about to get much more so if the democrats have their way, perhaps we more people would be motivated to get off their bottom and work hard AND smart so that they too could share disproportiontely (jk) in the bounty this nation has to offer.
 
Open Announcement
February 16th, 2008

Economic Indicators Continued by SGS. The Department of Commerce (DOC) has decided to discontinue its economic indicators service economicindicators.gov (effective March 1st) "due to budgetary constraints." Shadow Government Statistics is pleased to announce that it will provide — at no charge to the public — a continuation of the basic link service heretofore provided by the DOC’s Economics and Statistics Administration.

The existing government service provides links to the Web pages and recent releases of the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U.S. Census Bureau. We eventually plan to extend the service to other government or quasi-government reporting agencies, including the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve, as well as to provide links to other major economic data providers. We plan for the new service to be operational by Wednesday, February 20, 2008.
 
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