ECONOMIC Indicators
Scott Wallace, Ph.D. Director and Editor, CBEI; Professor of Economics, Sentry School of Business and Economics Mashaal Stanekzai Research Assistant, CBEI
Economic Indicators: The Shutdown Edition Our Economic Indicator section is considerably shorter than usual because of the unavailability of economic data stemming from the government’s shutdown. Economic measures like gross domestic product, consumer price index, and the unemployment rate are produced and released by federal agencies, respectively the Bureau of Economic Analysis and Bureau of Labor Statistics. These (and many other) indicators are incredibly important in informing government policy, investment strategies, and business decisions, both domestic and abroad. In trying to achieve its dual mandate of stable prices and maximum employment, for example, the Federal Reserve’s target for the federal funds rate is largely based on reliable employment and inflation data. The recent absence of these statistics due to the shutdown means that the Fed, investors, and businesses have to make decisions with less information. While there are private sources of economic data (like ADP, Revelio Labs, and Indeed), the quality and quantity of the data tend to be inferior to federal sources for reasons expressed below: The economic measures produced by federal agencies are classic examples of public goods . A public good is one that is both non-rival and non-excludable . Non-rival means that one person’s use of the good doesn’t reduce the amount available for others to use; non-excludable means that it is impossible to exclude others from using. Most goods are private goods which are both rival (my consumption of a donut means there is none left for others) and excludable (I bought the donut, so I have legal ownership of the donut). Private markets defined by enforceable property rights do a great job of producing and distributing private goods to society. With public goods which are non-rival and non-enforceable, private markets fail to provide an efficient level stemming from insufficient individual incentives to produce them. Once available, many can use the data (non-rival) without paying for the data (non-excludable). This is known as the free-rider problem. The creation and distribution of effective economic data thus require a strong role for government which can force payment through taxation. Alert: Table 13: Months of Inventory and Average Days on Market is a new table that gives useful information regarding the availability of homes for sale for Wisconsin as well as Marathon, Portage, and Wood counties.
Central Wisconsin Report - Fall 2025
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