Oh, my head is spinning now

I don't like change. So I looked at the "Enhanced Graph Accessibility" option, tried it out, and went back to the old edit system. That was a few days ago.

Today I was finishing up a graph, and wanted to change the color of Line 5. But I could not, because the color-change window (in the old edit system) now appears halfway off the screen. I could not scroll the screen to access the color-data field because scrolling the screen makes the color-change window disappear. 

I was going to blog that problem. But then I remembered the new system. I switched to the new system and changed the color easily. Then I changed the line type from SOLID to DASH, and the graph was done.

I was all set to set the size to 800x450 and download the image. That's when I discovered that I could not find the set-graph-size fields in the Enhanced system. So I went back to the old edit system and set the size there, no problem. Then I looked at my graph.

Problema! Line 5 appears as a SOLID line in the old system. I switched to the Enhanced system, and checked: In the new system the line is DASHed. I switched again to the old system and checked: In the old system the line is SOLID.

My new-system graph is  https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1Cnix

In the old system I'm editing line 5 to make it DASHed.
The line changed to DASHed, as expected.
I saved it in the old system as:  https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1Cnku

I opened 1Cnku in a new window, and the line came up SOLID. 

I went back to the original 1Cnku, where line 5 was DASHed, and refreshed the screen. Line 5 came up SOLID here, too.

Yikes!

Okay. I reloaded 1Cnix, the one where I changed the color for line 5, and the line type to DASHed. Line 5 came up as solid here, too. Looks to me like it makes the change on the screen, but does not save it (Share Links: Page Short URL") in EITHER system.

I need a drink!

Line width

This morning, the first line I put on the graph has a default line width of 2, and the second line has a default line width of 3. That happened three times. The third line also has a default line width of 3. Looks like a glitch to me.

Not a problem, but I can't ignore it until after I say something.

Oh, and the "Sources" information has been reformatted? Looks good!

Oh, I like this!

Not a test. I need the Rasche data, either quarterly or annual, I'm not
sure yet, plus the above datasets for the years since 1959! Thank you.

Maybe I should change the name of this blog, huh.

Don't Freq Out

So I put Nonfarm Business Sector: Labor Share for All Workers  (PRS85006173) on a graph. This data (series a) is quarterly by default. Everything was good.

Then I added a second series (series b) in the "Edit Line 1" window: Shares of gross domestic income: Compensation of employees, paid  (A4002E1A156NBEA). This series is annual by default.

But the Labor Share data was still displayed at quarterly frequency. This surprised me, especially as the frequency was shown as "Annual" in the Edit-Line-1 window.

I changed the formula to display series b. The screen refreshed and this data was correctly displayed as annual. Then I switched back to series a, and it now displayed as annual.

I was starting to think everything was okay, and then I looked at the graph title. The title said "Not Seasonally Adjusted". I switched back to series b, and the title was good. I switched back to series a, and again the title said "Not Seasonally Adjusted".

Around 4:30 this morning...

 Looking at a handful of Real GDP series,

 I was going for an end date of 1991.

I love it!

"What Dates Are Used for the U.S. Recession Bars?"

The page says:

At times, the months and quarters of the business cycle turning points do not align. To learn more, see the FRED Blog post “Discrepancies in dating recessions.”

Nope.

 

Perhaps this:

https://fredblog.stlouisfed.org/2021/08/discrepancies-in-dating-recessions/

ps, I find that sort of information useful.

Annual aggregation of Quarterly debt using EOP

I catch myself lately noticing little improvements in the FRED graphing system. Little things, so that I'm not even sure there was a change. But I do notice them, and I do like what I see. My thanks to all at FRED.

I test things.

Quarterly debt data like TCMDO is given as "Quarterly, End-of Period". Debt data is always given as end-of-period, I think -- and I think this makes sense, even though I have to make up my own reasons that it might.

The quarterly series GDP, converted to annual values, appears to best match the annual series GDPA when GDP is aggregated using the "average" option, not End-of-Period. So this tells me that GDPA is figured from quarterly data by "average" and not by EOP. I am not surprised by this, as GDP is not debt data.

I pay attention to these things because it matters at least a little in the resulting graphs.

Now my complaint...

If I take a quarterly debt series and convert it to annual using EOP, everything is fine until I grab the "page short URL" for the graph and use that link to access the graph. 

The problem is that the Edit Window (for the page-short-URL version) tells me the quarterly data was converted to annual using the "average" option when I know perfectly well that I used EOP.

I don't know if the Edit window is telling me the truth. Maybe the problem is only that the "aggregation method" field is not updated. Or maybe the problem is more complicated. Dunno.

Thanks for listening.