Updated Thursday, February 19, 2004 at 1:12:39 PM

Here are some web sites that provide useful background information about the state of the economy. Unfortunately, too much of what is published in daily newspapers fails to examine the underlying economic reports in detail. Many of these reports are accompanied by thoughtful, readable commentary that is essential reading for anyone interested in managing their own money.

* Michigan

* Housing Starts

* Bureau of Labor Statisitics
http://www.bls.gov/mls/home.htm
Employment information

Institute for Supply Management

Office of Workforce Security (Labor)

* St Louis Federal Reserve
http://www.stls.frb.org/
Money supply numbers

* Northern Trust Economic Research
http://www.ntrs.com/library/econ_research/
Decent analysis – daily, weekly commentary in .PDF format

The Daily Reconing

Prudent Bear.com

Inside Investing – MSN Money

Pimco – Bill Gross

Hussman – weekly

Bloomburg News

Fiend’s super bear page

Yahoo Financial News

ABCNews.com – consumer survey

Wall Street Journal

The Ecomomist

Barron’s – data including PEs, etc

* Morgan Stanley – Global Economic Forum – Stephen Roach, Chief Economist
http://www.morganstanley.com/GEFdata/digests/latest-digest.html Analysis and commentary on a broad range of issues.

* The Conference Board
http://www.conference-board.org/

* CBS MarketWatch
http://cbs.marketwatch.com
News and information – some of the information is ok but these are journalists, not financial analysts. However, they do report on the economic indicators and provide links to the original reports and analysis.
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