What are some good, "politically neutral" economic indicators?

Question

Try as hard as possible to steer away from politics. Give me some good, solid indicators to evaluate the economy today, ten years ago and ten years from now.

I may be on a fool's errand, but I'm hoping to get something more than people cherry-picking the statistics they like to prove "their guy" is right.

I predict this will be one of the most BORING questions posted in a long
time, but what the heck.

Thanks.

Answer 1

All economic indicators are "politically neutral". They are just a statistical number or data point. You have to look at all of them as a whole and compare all of them as a whole to historical data.

http://www.economagic.com/
Economagic.com has tons of economic data and it graphs it out for you. If you hear someone "cherry pick" a particular piece of information, look up a historic chart a see where it compares to the past over the last 30 - 50 years.

Click on Most Requested Series. You hear many of those on TV, but there are others.
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Another excellent source of data, but you have to register. It is free.
http://www.economy.com/freelunch/default.asp

Answer 2

Here is my answer, I hope it will help a bit.
Widely used indicators tend to omit disparities within an economy. For example, the Eurozone inflation rate used by the European Central Bank does not indicate the disparities between countries within the Eurozone.
However, local economic indicators which are closer to reallity are usually measured differently from one another (e.g. the US unemployment rate and the Swedish one) For this reason, one cannot compare them easily.
The trade off between these two objectives shows that an indicator, especially an economic one, is rarely "politically neutral" as it, amongst others, reflects a preference for precise local measurements or for the clarity of aggregates measurements.
yours,
greg.

Answer 3

Leading indicators. For instance, orders are up on new timber, would indicate that there is an increased need for 2x4's which indicates that the new housing market is beginning to crank up.

Sales of durable goods. The more those are up, the better people are feeling about the economy.

Those are the ones that spring to mind, I might have some more in a while.

Answer 4

in basic terms liberal leaning alerts are politically maximum suitable now. and then there is morons like Dr. Pepper. - No attempt to respond to the question - provide a blatant unrelated lie as a reaction. - Criticize and insult the question. it fairly is the liberal way....

Answer 5

Home ownership is at its highest ever!!!!