Five Resources on Our Website You Might Not Have Seen

The St. Louis Fed recently launched a newly designed website. It’s now easier for you to find and share information from the St. Louis Fed.

You can view our Bank president’s latest remarks, keep up with research from our economists and other experts, and discover how our teams engage with the people we serve.

We also have lots of other interesting resources on our website that you might not have seen. Read on to learn about five of them.

1. A Federal Reserve Explainer

Have you ever wanted to learn about the Federal Reserve in a fun, digestible way? Look no further than Making Sense of the Federal Reserve.

This resource helps people better understand what the Federal Reserve is and the important work it does in service to the American public—all with the help of a friendly tour guide named Penny.

For instance, you can learn more about the history of the Fed; its regional structure; and its responsibilities related to monetary policy, bank supervision and regulation, and financial services. You can also watch an 11-minute video that introduces you to the Federal Reserve.

2. Data Dashboards Using FRED

Perhaps you’ve come across FRED—the St. Louis Fed’s signature economic database—when searching for a graph of the unemployment rate or real gross domestic product (GDP).

FRED is a data aggregator that allows its millions of users to access 825,000 economic data series from more than 100 sources—all for free.

What if you just want a quick overview of how the economy is doing? Economy at a Glance, housed with our On the Economy blog, highlights eight charts with key economic indicators. These charts provide users with a snapshot of the U.S. economy and are powered by FRED.

Did You Know?

The St. Louis Fed serves the Eighth Federal Reserve District, which includes all of Arkansas and parts of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee.

If you’re curious about data for the Eighth Federal Reserve District, check out Regional Data Powered by FRED. You can find graphs and maps related to GDP, population, the labor market and housing for the states and metro areas in the Eighth District.

View a county-level map to see if your county is in the Eighth District.

3. An Econ Glossary

The St. Louis Fed’s Economic Education department provides countless resources—including lessons, videos and podcasts—to help students learn about economics and personal finance and to help educators teach those subjects.

But the resources aren’t only for students and teachers. There is plenty of content consumers might find helpful, such as the Glossary of Economics and Personal Finance Terms.

If you want a quick definition of terms like “opportunity cost,” “purchasing power,” “rule of 72” and hundreds of others, explore this handy glossary.

4. St. Louis Fed Events

One way the St. Louis Fed engages with the public is through events. Some events are targeted to specific groups, like teachers, community development practitioners or economic researchers. Others are geared to a general audience, such as Dialogue with the Fed, a lecture series featuring Fed experts addressing key issues of the day.

The St. Louis Fed recently held this year’s Homer Jones Memorial Lecture, named after former research director Homer Jones, who exemplified the highest qualities of leadership in economics and public policy. You can click the link to see the list of distinguished speakers from over the years and to watch videos of more recent speakers’ lectures.

5. Email Subscriptions

The St. Louis Fed regularly releases new information in the form of newsletters, publications, blogs, press releases and other updates. You can subscribe to stay informed about those that interest you.

But let’s say you want a quick way to get a sampling of what’s new at the St. Louis Fed.

You can subscribe to the Central Banker newsletter for a twice-monthly roundup of speeches, articles, podcast episodes, and more—on everything from economic research to practical lessons on personal finance.

Kristie Engemann, a senior coordinator with the St. Louis Fed’s communications team, compiled this blog post.