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.

Dropping the first year's data...

Same topic as the previous post, which I didn't show til this morning.

I  got TCMDODNS

converted the frequency to ANNUAL and the aggregation method to END OF PERIOD.

The graph shows data beginning with 1946.

But the excel download shows data beginning with 1947.

It would be GREAT if the download began with 1945. As it stands, I retrieve that item using "+more" and "ViewAll" in the "observation" box, just above the graph on the left.

PS: I love FRED

I need details and more checking

 

Happened twice in the last two days: I make a graph of one series divided by another. The graph shows data starting in 1946. I export the data to Excel. Excel shows data starting in 1947.