Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Getting Economic Good Data

When economic markets are reeling and major news developments happen several times a day, it is important to stay well informed. However, bad information is even worse than no information at all, so making sure that your news sources are reliable and trustworthy is key. In the spirit of information sharing, I thought I would share some of the economic news sources from which I gather my data.

WSJ - I have a subscription to the Wall Street Journal, and while I don't have time to read that paper in full every day, I make it a point to scan the headlines for 10 minutes every morning when I get to the office. I also read a couple of articles in the evening. This is an excellent and very detailed source of economic information.

The Economist - In my opinion, The Economist is by far the best source of detailed and clear economic analysis. While my subscription has elapsed a couple of weeks ago, I shall renew! The only down side: there is no way to "scan" this weekly magazine. I always find myself dragged into to hours of reading, and its not unusual for me to have 5 - 10 previous issues on my night stand waiting for me to finish reading them.
 
NY Times - again, in my humble opinion, the best daily newspaper in the country. I don't subscribe, but I buy it periodically (especially before getting on flights). I do visit the website every day.

Business Week - as a source of detailed information and analysis this one is pretty weak, however it is a great overview which I scan on a weekly basis. If I find anything interesting, I do a deep dive on my own.

Kiplinger - recently I have started reading Kiplinger's online. I really dislike the website itself, but they do have some interesting information about personal finance, a topic which I have... a passing interest in...

NPR - I am not a member, and shame on me, but I listen to NPR practically every minute I am in the car. Market Place and All Things Considered are two excellent programs that cover financial and economic issues in depth.

Personal Finance Blogs - although us PF bloggers don't tend to break any major news stories, we do provide a lot of opinion and analysis which I find useful. Personal finance blogs also do a far better job of analyzing in depth personal finance issues than practically any news outlet out there. You can find a partial list of my favorite PF blogs in my blog-roll, but my top two choices are The Digerati Life and Frugal Zeitgeist, both written by lady bloggers and both offering excellent, fun content.

Check for Myself - whenever I hear of an important news development that involves a publicly available source of information, such as a government report or interview, I often go and check the source for myself rather than rely on the summary created for me by some news organization. I find that the picture becomes much clearer that way - this however takes a lot of time, so I do it judiciously.

I would love to hear about the news sources you use to gather your data. Sound out in the comment section below.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a great post -- very informative. Though I love my personal finance blogs, I usually stick to national or international newspapers for my finance news. You should check out some UK newspapers as well, particularly The Guardian (go to their website and check out the money section). The news is generally no-nonsense, and there are also some great feature articles as well.

Anonymous said...

I think my prior comment was chewed up by Blogspot, so real quickly...

Bloomberg Radio's "On The Economy" w/ Tom Keane! In-depth and timely.

Anonymous said...
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