Reading the economy without being fooled · Lesson 1 of 10
Where the numbers actually come from
Treasury, BLS, the Fed and FRED publish nearly everything worth citing.
About 9 minutes · Advanced
What to take away
- Secondary reporting compresses and drifts.
- Always find the release.
- Cite the document, not the summary.
Why this lesson is written this way
Each point above is checkable. Where the subject is genuinely disputed — the causes of inflation, the future of the dollar's reserve role, whether current debt levels are sustainable — the lesson states both readings rather than choosing quietly for you. Nothing here predicts a price, because nobody can.
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