Why why why why why?

I go to FRED to look for data and to look at data. Sometimes I have to hunt. Sometimes I know what I'm looking for. When I know what I'm looking for I can just type the name into the search box and get the graph. Sometimes.

Sometimes not. Sometimes I get this:

Why? Why give me a list with one thing on it? Why not just give me the thing?

This problem comes up a lot. I've noted it here and here, for example. Well, it's not a "problem" I guess. But it's annoying.

Real GDP per Capita is now over 50 Trillion dollars!

If you don't believe me, check out the vertical scale units.

screen cap of source page

Don't you want to fix that?

Poor frequency evaluation

If you try to create a scatter plot at FRED, a lot of times you'll get an error message like this one:

For scatter plots, both plot in a pair must have the same frequency. The following plot pair has been skipped: plot #1 with frequency Quarterly, End of Period and plot #2 with frequency Quarterly, End of Quarter.

It seems to me that if it's quarterly data, "end of period" and "end of quarter" mean the same thing. If so, FRED has no valid objection to creating the scatter plot.

I think the code that checks the frequency of the data needs an update. Looks to me that they're doing a simple character-by-character text comparison, when they should be doing a little evaluation of frequency settings.

Is it CMDEBT / GDP or is it GDP / CMDEBT ?

I just downloaded an Excel file from FRED. As it happens, I have two graphs on the screen: CMDEBT relative to GDP, and GDP relative to CMDEBT. I decided to use the data from the GDP relative to CMDEBT graph. So I downloaded that, opened the file, and glanced at the column header above the first data. CMDEBT_GDP, it says.

Did I download data from the wrong graph? I had to stop and check.

This happened to me once before, just the other day. I didn't know what the problem was, but I did notice the fluke. So I was ready for it when I found it just now.

When I first made the graph it showed CMDEBT. Then I added GDP. So I think that's what the CMDEBT_GDP is, a list of the data series in the order they are added to the graph. It definitely does not show the data relation, which is GDP / CMDEBT.

Maybe this isn't a big deal, if you know about it. But if it catches you by surprise it can mess up your work.

I don't know if this happened in the days before FRED's May 2016 revision. I don't think it did happen, but I can't say for sure.

There's probably a reason for this...

Today is Thursday, 8 September 2016. I'm looking at the FRED series CMDEBT. Just above the graph, to the left, it tells me the value of the most recent data item (Q1 2016: 14,316.00) and when the series was last updated: Jun 9, 2016. That all makes sense.

Now, down below the graph are the Notes, and among the notes the Suggested Citation. And the citation ends thus:

... [CMDEBT], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis;
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CMDEBT, August 22, 2016.

Where the hell did August 22 come from? This is Thursday, 8 September. The graph was updated on 9 June.

August 22?

They fixed one!

After the 2014 revision to the FRED Graph system, you could add what they called a "trend line" to your graph. I poked a little fun at that before. Here's a pic of the option they offered:

Here's a pic of the option now, after the 2016 revision:

It is no longer called a "trend" line. Now it is a "user-defined" line.

I'd like to think it was all my doing, that they no longer call the thing a trend line. I know it wasn't. But what the heck.

Thanks, guys. Thanks for fixing that.