Ahead of the Curve

Notes

Preface

1. Appendix C contains a broad listing of industry classifications for which data are readily available as part of consumer spending (personal consumption expenditures), capital spending (gross domestic private investment), industrial production, and retail sales as reported by government bureaus.

2. Vertical gray bars are usually used in charts, primarily by economists, to denote recession.

Chapter 1

1. Another New York Times Business section article, on July 11, 2003, headlined “Data in Conflict: Why Economists Tend to Weep,” amplified the ambiguity and confusion of economic data reports.

2. Paul A. Samuelson, Collected Scientific Papers of Paul A. Samuelson (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1986).

Chapter 4

1. In defining recession ...