DataPost is a web-based educational tool designed to help students interpret economic data, key concepts, and economic conditions through visual explanations. Core Presentations are updated regularly using the most currently available data, with additional topics presented by subject: Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, and International. DataPost complements economic content covered at the AP high school and undergraduate levels.
Core Presentations
Gross Domestic Product (GDP): Measuring the Nation’s Output
GDP is one of the key measures of a nation’s economic performance. This DataPost outlines the components of GDP and places these components within the context of recent values published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Also available: a video learning guide to help you interpret Data Post GDP charts.
Inflation: Measuring Price Changes
This DataPost tutorial looks at the Fed’s key measure of inflation—the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index—including how it relates to the concepts of “core” and “total” inflation in the U.S. economy.
Unemployment Rate: Measuring the Workforce
Learn about how the unemployment rate is measured, broader measures of unemployment, and three types of unemployment: structural, cyclical, and frictional.
Macroeconomics Slides
The Money Supply: Measuring M1 & M2
Government Spending: Measuring Federal Expenditures
Microeconomics Slides
Personal Saving Rate: Delayed Consumption
College Debt: Rising Student Loan Balances
Labor Force Participation Rates: Measuring Workforce Engagement