Federal Reserve Economic Data

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FRED on Frederick

County- and metropolitan-level data in FRED

FRED does not offer data on itself, but it does offer data on Frederick.

Frederick is a town in Maryland that gave its name to its county and metropolitan area. There’s also a Frederick County in neighboring Virginia. A FRED search for Frederick gives (at the time of this writing) 554 results: 290 for counties and 264 for metropolitan areas. We invite our friends to explore the world of regional data in FRED, which you can monitor with the use of FRED’s dashboard feature. For now, back to Frederick.

Both Fredericks are within commuting distance to Washington, D.C., and have experienced strong population growth. Just look at the first FRED graph. This population growth has also led to sustained growth in income in both counties, which the FRED graph above shows. A population boom combined with rising incomes leads us naturally to more expensive housing, as the FRED graph below shows.

How these graphs were created: In each case, we started from the search for “Frederick,” clicked on one series, clicked on “Edit Graph,” and added the other line by searching for the other series in the “Add Line” tab.

Suggested by Christian Zimmermann.

Turkey or Tofurkey?

A protein price comparison for the Thanksgiving meal

This is the time of the year to give thanks, and the FRED Blog is thankful for the rich variety of data series and data sources available in FRED. In years past, we’ve tapped data from the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Eurostat to assemble tasty graphs showing the price of traditional Thanksgiving meals. Today, we compare a poultry-based meal with a plant-based meal.

Let’s start with a data literacy appetizer. The FRED graph above plots the quarterly global prices of poultry (including turkey) in orange and soybeans (the main ingredient in tofu) in green, as reported by the International Monetary Fund. Savor the fact that the units of each series are different: poultry prices are reported in U.S. cents per pound of meat (on the left axis), and soybean prices are reported in U.S. dollars per metric ton (on the right axis).

Also, notice how relatively stable the prices of both commodities are from quarter to quarter. Even though the data are not seasonally adjusted, the prices do not regularly increase or decrease during a calendar year. We can thank the global supply of both commodities for the lack of seasonality in prices.

Now for the main course: turkey (i.e., poultry) or tofurkey (i.e., soybeans)? According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, roasted turkey has almost 3 times the caloric value and 1.5 times the protein value of an equivalent serving of fried tofu by weight. Between 1990 and the time of this writing, the average global price of poultry has been 6 times higher than the price of soybeans.

As of the third quarter of 2021, a hearty Thanksgiving dinner serving of turkey costs $1.42. A tofurkey (soybean) dinner serving with the same amount of calories costs $0.66 and provides almost twice as much protein. Keep in mind that this plant-based meal would be almost 3 times larger by weight than the poultry-based meal and may either keep you at the dinner table longer or provide you with more leftovers. Of course, our calculations here don’t include the time value, energy costs, and additional ingredients required to cook the meals.

How these graphs were created:
Global prices (the graph shown here). Search for and select “Global price of Poultry.” From the “Edit Graph” panel, use the “Add Line” tab to search for and select “Global price of Soybeans.” To change the line color, mark types, and Y-axis position of the series, use the “Format” panel.
Relative prices (the first linked graph). Search for and select “Global price of Poultry.” From the “Edit Graph” panel, use the “Edit Line 1” tab to customize the data by searching for and selecting “Global price of Soybeans.” Last, create a custom formula to combine the series to make them comparable pound for pound and dollar for dollar by typing in (a/100)/(b/2204.62) and clicking “Apply.”
Cost of caloric-equivalent meal (the second linked graph). Search for and select “Global price of Poultry.” From the “Edit Graph” panel, use the “Edit Line” tab to customize the data by applying the formula a/100. Next, from the “Edit Graph” panel, use the “Add Line” tab to search for and select “Global price of Soybeans.” Next, use the “Edit Line 2” tab to customize the data by applying the formula (a/2204.62)*2.93. Salt and flavor the graphs to taste by using the “Format” panel.

Suggested by Diego Mendez-Carbajo.

Income convergence: Massachusetts vs. the U.S. and the U.S. vs. the world

Massachusetts has historically been one of the richest U.S. states, at least in per capita personal income; it was indeed the richest state as of the second quarter of 2021. And the U.S. has been one of the richest countries in the world, at least in terms of per capita GDP. So, in this post, we use data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and World Bank to show some relationships in per capita income and GDP.

The blue line plots the ratio of per capita personal income for the United States as a whole to that of Massachusetts. From the 1930s until 1980, the United States as a whole was catching up, or converging, to Massachusetts: from about 75% of the per capita income of Massachusetts to nearly 100%. Since 1980, that trend has reversed and U.S. per capita income has decreased relative to that of Massachusetts. As of 2020, the ratio is back to its 1930s level. Even though per capita income grew in the United States during the 1980-2020 period, it did so at a slower pace than in Massachusetts.

The lesson here is that states poorer than Massachusetts were tending to grow faster than Massachusetts until 1980, implying that the United States as a whole was growing faster. Since 1980, states poorer than Massachusetts have grown at a slower pace and are not converging to the richer states anymore.

The red line shows a similar relationship at the world level, plotting the ratio of real per capita GDP for the world as a whole to that of the United States. Interestingly, the pattern is similar: What appears to be true within the United States (i.e., the absence of convergence of poor states to rich ones) also appears to be true at the world level (i.e., the absence of convergence of poor countries to rich ones).

How this graph was created: Search for and select “Per Capita Personal Income in Massachusetts.” From the “Edit Graph” panel, use “Edit Line 1” to add a series, searching for “Personal Income Per Capita” and applying formula b/a*100. From the “Add Line” tab, search for and select “Constant GDP Per Capita for the United States” and apply the same process as above by adding “Constant GDP Per Capita for the World.” Finally, use the “Format” tab to ensure the second line uses the right axis.

Suggested by Guillaume Vandenbroucke.



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